
Qass y/^c L_ 
Book 0(0^ 



@ 



/^cJ/ 




7/ f /6 



s^ 








yj'S:3, 



'SCIENTIFIC WORKS, 

PUBLISHED BY GOULD AND LINCOLN, 
59 "Washington Street, Boston. 



FOOT-PRINTS OF THE C R E A T E ; 

OR, THE ASTEEOLEPI8 OF STKOMNESS. 

BY HUGH MILLER. 

From the Uiird London Edition. With Illustrations, and a Memoir of the Author. 
BY LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



THE OLD RED SANDSTONE; 

OR, NEW WALKS IN AN OLD FIELD. 

BY HUGH MILLER. 

JTrom ti^e jFourtf) fLnntfott latiition. Ellustratei. 



POETRY OF SCIENCE; 

OR, STUDIES OF PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF NATURE. 

BY ROBERT HUNT. 



LAKE SUPERIOR, 

ITS PHYSICAL CHARACTER, VEGETATION AND ANIMALS, 
COMPARED WITH OTHER AND SIMILAR REGIONS. 

BY LOUIS AGASSIZ. 

SlSaiti^ a Warratibe of tf)£ 32ipc"Qttton, anlj EUustrattonjf, 
BY J. E. CABOT. 



THE EARTH AND MAN: 

COMPABATTVE PHYSICAI, GEOGRAPHY, IN ITS EELATION TO THE HISTORT OF MANKIND. 

By Arnold Guton, Prof. Geo. & Hist., Neuchatel. 
Translated from the French, by Peof. C. C. Felton. — With Illustrations. 



NEW revised edition. 

PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY; 

touching THE STRUCTURE, DEVELOPMENT, AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE RACES OP ANITVLALS, 

aSSttf) Illustrations. jTov ^cTjooIs antr CColIeses, 

Part I. Comparative Physiology. 

BY L. AGASSIZ AND A. A. GOULD. 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY; 

OR, YEAR BOOK OP FACTS IN SCIENCE AND ART. 

EXHIBITING THE IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES AND IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. 

EDITED BY DAYID A. WELLS, AND GEORGE BLISS, JR. 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/naturalhistoryof03smit 






OF 




LIEUT. COL.CHA^ HAMILTON SMITH K.H 




BLAC^FOOT TND.AN 



BOSTON 

GOULD & LINCOLN 

59 WASHINGTON STREET 
1851. 



THE 



NATURAL HISTORY 



OF 



THE HUIAK SPECIES 



ITS 



TYPICAL FORMS, PRIMEVAL DISTRIBUTION, 
FILIATIONS, AND MIGRATIONS. 



ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAYINGS. 
BY 

LIEUT.-COL. CHAS. HAMILTON SMITH, 

PKESIDEST OF THE DEVON AND CORNWALL NAT. HIST. SOtlETY, ETC. ETC. 



WITH A PRELIMINARY ABSTRACT OF THE VIEWS OP ELUMENBACII, 

PRICIIARD, BACHMAN, AGASSIZ, AND OTHER AUTHORS 

OF REPUTE ON THE SUBJECT. 



BY S. KNEELAND, Jr., M. D. 

f 



BOSTON: 
GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

5a WASHINGTON STREET. 

1851. 




o,\^ 






!J 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S51 , 

By GOULD & LINCOLN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Coui-t of the District of iiassachuseits. 



Bw tr&ni/Wr rrom 
F»t. Oak«« Ub. 

Apra 1914. 



Ktcreotyped by 

IIOUAUT k UOBBINS; 

VZW EXCI-A^D TYl'E AND STEHEOTVrE FOUNDETf 

BOSTON. 



Trinted by George C. Hand & Co., No. 3 Cornhill. 

• 



5^ 



PUBLISHEES' 

ADVERTISEMENT TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. 



After the anxious and ardent study of two years, the 
talented author of the following pages has reduced to a last- 
ing form the labors, original observations, and pictorial illus- 
trations, collected during his long and valuable life, upon 
this important history, in which he has, with such praise- 
worthy industry, treasured up the interesting facts and 
reasonings in this volume — very much condensed it is true, 
but yet exhibiting such a view of the subject as, we trust, 
cannot fail of being both interesting, instructive and popular. 

We embrace this opportunity to give an extract of a letter 
just received from himself respecting a Preface to the volume, 
not being willing to lose any details which may fall from so 
valuable a source. 

^' As for a Preface, I see nothing required, unless it was 

thought proper to state what I had said in the concluding 

1# 



VI ' ADVERTISEMENT. 

paragraph respecting mj predecessors; wliose details I did 
not think it my mission to repeat, particularly as the confined 
space alloYred me was not even sufficient to fully explain the 
statements I had to make and comment upon. This fact is 
abundantly exemplified in the short abstracts I have been 
compelled to give of the European Caucasians, whose inter- 
mixtures, by well known migrations from the north to the 
south, might have been given, with details full of interest ; 
particularly as, by the means of the Gothic invasions, all the 
new elements were brought into existence, which, when 
leavened by Christianity and the antique schools of civiliza- 
tion, brought forth the present progressive development. 
Experiment, flict, and inductive fact, are the basis of knowl- 
edge, and stand in perpetual contradistinction to the author- 
ity and dicta of antiquity, usually without foundations. In 
the work before us, it is true that much rests necessarily 
upon induction ; but when we have antecedents and succe- 
dcnts, the intermediate cannot be said to be conjecture; it is 
an approximation to positive fact, from actual necessity. 
This is the line of arguing which I would take up if a pref- 
ace be necessary." 



CONTENTS. 



PAGIi! 

INTRODUCTION, . . . . . . . 15 

Preliminary Observations, ..... .99 

Changes on the Earth's Surface since the commencement of 
THE present Zoological System, .... 104 

Asia, ........ 105 

South of Asia, ...... 107 

The Indus, 107 

Ceylon, ....... Ill 

The Ganges, ....... 113 

Australasia, . . . . , . .113 

East Coast of Asia, . , . . . .115 

Arctic Asia, . . . . , . .118 

Caspian Basin, or Asiatic Mediterranean, . • . 120 

Europe, . 124 

Arctic Europe, ....... 126 

Western Europe, . . . . . .128 



VIII CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Rhine, 130 

Great Britain, . . . • . . 133 

Southern Europe, ....... 135 

Italy, ........ 137 

The Egean, . . . . . . . 1 39 

Asia Minor, ....... 141 

Basin of the Dead Sea, ...... 142 

Currents of the Mediterranean, .... 144 

Africa, ........ 14G 

America, ....... 147 

West Indies, ....... 149 

North America, . . . . . .150 

The Pacific, 151 

Bones of Man among Organic Remains, . . . 153 

Vale of Kostritz, ....... 156 

Traditions respecting extinct Species, . . . 161 

Human Ossuaries, >Yith Bones of extinct Animals, . . 163 

Existence of Man as a Genus, or as a Single Species, _ 167 
Species or Typical Forms of Man, . . . .175 

Abnormal Races of Man, ..... 182 

The Giants, 182 

The Dwarfs, 186 

The Aturian Paltas or Flatheads of South America, . .190 

Remains of other Abnormal Tribes, . . . 193 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

The Typical Stocks, ....... 198 

Comparison of Physical Powers and Structural Differences of 

the Typical Stocks, . . . . ,198 

Intellectual and Moral Characters of the Typical Stocks, . 2Q6 
Primeval Location of Man, or position of the Typical Stocks, 208 
Diagram of primeval Location of Typical and Subtypical 

Stocks, ....... 222 

THE WOOLLY-HAIRED TROPICAL TYPE, . . .223 

The Malay Subtypical Stem, ..... 243 

The American Subtypical Stem, ..... 255 

THE HYPERBOREAN, BEARDLESS, OR MONGOLIC TYPE, 279 

The Finnic, Ouralian, or Tschudic Subtypical Stem, . 296 

The Basques, ....... 305 

The Ligurians or Llogrians, ..... 307 

TheVeneti, 309 

The Etruscans, . . . . . . .311 

The Finns or Suomi, .,.,,, 320 

The Huns, 323 

The Khazars, ....... 325 

The Hungarians, ....... 325 

The Turks, 327 

The Ethiopian or Melanic Stem, .... 330 

The Egyptians, . . . . . .349 



X CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

The Atlantics or Berbers, ..... 355 

The Numldians, ...... 355 

The Amazigh, ....... 355 

The Suakim, . . . , , . , 356 

TheTuarikhs, 357 

THE BEARDED, INTERMEDIATE, OR CAUCASIAN TYPE, 358 

The Semitic Races, ...... 371 

The Arabs, 372 

The Ilebre^vs, 375 

The Babyloiuans, Chaldees, and Assyrians, . . . 378 
The Gaurs and Persians, . . . . .381 

The Typical Caucasians, ...... 383 

The Kauais or Mamoges, ..... 384 

The Circassian and Georgian Tribes of the Caspian Caucasus, 386 

Tlie Pclasgiau, Dorian, and Hellenic Tribes, . . 388 

The Tirynthians, ...... 391 

The Ptomaus, . . , . . . . 393 

The Celtic Nations, 396 

The Gcta3 or Gothic Nations, .... 410 

Appendix, ........ 421 



EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 



PLATE I. 

Beginning with the most aberrant forms, we have the American, 
whereof the Aturian Palta or Titicaca Flatheads form the type. It is so 
distinct, that its having a common origin with the forms of the Old Con- 
tinent is not satisfactorily established, since the oblique-headed Peruvian 
and the depressed-headed Chinook are mere artificial imitations of the 
typical head. That this is not itself the result of contrivance, is exempli- 
fied in the figure of a Titicaca child's head of perhaps the fifth year, 
which is greatly prolonged, yet less so than another in positive infancy. 
Both have the orbits more solid than heads of the same age on the 
eastern continent, and the older of the two presents the additional bone 
(os incse) at the back of the head. The oblique-headed Peruvian shows 
its resemblance to Asiatic figures to be noticed in the sequel. 

PLATE II. 

Offers specimens of the woolly-haired type, the vertical view of a 
Negro's skull, pointing out the small breadth compared to the depth, and 
the projection of the face approaching the Titicaca form. Both have the 



XII EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. 

frontal bone carried high up the dome, though not in the same degree. 
There is no very striking difference between the skulls of the west and east 
coast of Africa, Tliose of Oriental Negroes, and even of Horafouros, who 
are not an unmixed race, have the same typical structure, though more 
debased ; the Tasmanian being the lowest, with perhaps the exception of 
the Bushman. 

PLATE IIL 

Of the beardless type, may be observed the shorter and more quadran- 
gular cranial form, with still more facial protrusion ; and, in the most 
northern partially mixed races, the very contracted occiput is remark- 
able. 

PLATE IV. 

Shows the regular oval form of the most intellectual type : more 
breadth of forehead ; prolonged expansion backwards, and nearly vertical 
f;\cial angle. The regular dome, as seen in the finest races of mankind — 
ancient Egyptians, Hebrews, Greeks, Circassians, and Arabs. In most 
European, a slight modification from a Finnic source may be traced. 

PLATE V. 

Proves the typical identity of the Oriental Negro with those of Mozam- 
bique and Guinea. 

PLATE YL — Figs. 1 and 2. 

Exhibits profiles of Indo-Chinese, or the sub-type of what we take to 
be the Malay races, where, in the vertical profile of one, we have a Cau- 
casian predominance, in the other more Papua blood, both in some degree 
partaking of the Negro coloring, but with the hard, black straight hair 
of a Mongolic intermixture. In the Australasian Islands, many customs 
remain, which attest that a portion of the American people derives its 



EXPLAKATIOX OF THE PLATES. XIII 

origin from tliem : for, among their paintings and carved work, represent- 
ing gods and heroes, we see personages dancing witli human heads slung 
to the waist, like modern Dyaks ; we observe ensigns cf feathers, stuck 
in sheaths at the hack, like the Malays cf Java ; and masks, tomahay/ks, 
shields, sword handles, and spears adorned, in a similar manner, with 
human hair and tufts of feathers. We refer to the figures in Captain 
Eeppel's voyage, and in the late Dutch publications on their Indian pos- 
sessions. 

Figs. 3 and 4. 

The character of lank hair is universal in the beardless races, and the 
presence of Caucasian blood scarcely marked by a somewhat more ruddy 
complexion, and slight beard in the Mongol and Eleuth. 

PLATE VII. — Fig. 1. 

Exemplifies an abnormal family of tribes. We figure a Bushman, once 
a private soldier in the Cape Rifles, like all the Hottentot nations, known 
by the pale yellow color. From drawings of Captain Nelson, R. E. 

Fig. 2. 

Cafuse Brazilian ; hybrid between Negro and Cayopa tribe of Indian 
blood. At Cape Gardafui, in Eastern Africa, an Arab intermixture pro- 
duces the same external aspect in the Jamaule Negroes. It occurs again 
among the Mekran Ethiops , and among the Malay Papuas of the Indian 
Ocean. 

PLATE VIII. — Fig. 1. 

Te-Kewiti, a New Zealand chief, showing, in conduct, reasoning, and 

person, high Caucasian development. 
2 



XIV EXPLANATION OF TUE PLATES. 

Fig. 2. 

North American Indian ; from the Travels of Prince Maximilian of 
Wied. 

PLATE IX. — Fig. 1. 

Cluche Indian : a tribe bordering on the Rocky Mountains, strongly 
marked "with Mongolic characters. He was sketched at New York. 

Fig. 2. 

Portrait of a Mongolic race : the Nogai Tahtar bearing the character- 
istics of his type very strongly. 

PLATE X. 

The Black Kalmuck most strongly marked with the Mongolic charac- 
ter ; and a Japanese prize-fighter, with broad but receding forehead. 

PLATE XI. — Fig. 1. 

Portrait of Mohammed 11., showing the Turkish Ouralian character, 
before the race was as yet much intermixed with Circassian and Greek 
blood. 

Fig. 2. 

The forehead of the Sarmatian noble is the maximum instance of exter- 
nal mental development. It is the same character that distinguishes the 
portraits of Wallenstein and other Bohemian and Polish heads. 

VIGNETTE. 

Blackfoot Indian, taken from Prince Maximilian of Wied's magnificent 
Atlas of Plates, illustrative of the North American Indian Tribes and 
Scenery. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The subject of the " Natural History of Man" has become one of 
the most exciting- topics of the day, both from its intrinsic interest 
and importance, and from the various bearings which have been 
given to it by sectarians, philanthropists, and savans. It is not a 
question of one side only, as many take for granted, nor has it 
become two-sided within the last few years. As long ago as the 
appearance of the work of Lawrence, scientific men maintained 
conflicting opinions on the original seats and characteristics of the 
human races ; and the great advances now made in zoology, com- 
parative anatomy, history, geography, philology, &c., have added 
new arguments to both sides of the question, and rendered a satis-" 
factory decision an exceedingly difficult matter. 

Dr. Prichard may Ke considered as the best expounder of the 
theory of the original unity of the human race. The author to whose 
work this chapter is introductory, adopts the side of the question 
to which Prof. Agassiz, Van Amringe, Dr. S. G. Morton, and 
others, give their sanction, in variously modified forms. The argu- 
ments of authors on both sides will be given as impartially as we are 
able to do it, and as fully as space will permit ; so that the reader 
may form his own opinion. A sketch of the views of those who 
are not committed to either side will also be added, so that informa- 
tion from all sources may aid in the formation of a just opinion. 



Lawrence, following the classification of Blumenbach, divides 
Man into five varieties, viz., the Caucasian, the Mongolian, the Ethi- 
opian, the American, and the Malay ; with the following characters : 

\. The Caucasian variety (to which we belong) is so named, from 
Mt. Caucasus, as in its neighborhood is found the supposed typical 
race of the Circassians and Georgians. It includes the following 
nations, ancient and modern — the Assyrians, Modes, Persians, Jews, 
Egyptians, Chaldeans, Georgians, Circassians, Armenians, Turks, 
Arabs, Syrians, Afghans, Hindoos of high caste, Moors of Northern 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

Africa, Greeks and Romans, the nations of modern Europe, (except 
the Laplanders,) and their descendants in this hemisphere ; in fine, 
those races in which intellect, both native and cultivated, has pro- 
duced the mightiest results ; those races, whose history would be the 
history of civilization and of Christianity ; and, in the opinion of 
many, the only race referred to in the Mosaic account of creation. 

The color of the skin, in this variety, is while; to this exclusively 
belongs the soft-spreading blush, the faithful index of the heart, which 
a European writer has erroneously made a moral as well as a physi- 
cal difference between the races ; to this race belongs redness of the 
cheeks. The hair varies in color from black to flaxen, is soft in 
quality and abundant. The color of the eyes generally follows that 
of the skin and hair, depending, as it does, on the amount of color- 
ing matter which is usually distributed equally in these different 
parts. 

The face is small, oval, and almost perpendicular ; the features 
distinct ; the forehead lofty and broad ; the nose narrow and rather 
aquiline ; the mouth small ; the lips thin and slightly turned out ; 
the front teeth in both jaws perpendicular ; the chin full and rounded. 
This is the face which agrees best with our ideas of beauty, being 
the happy mean between the laterally expanded face of the IMongo- 
lian and the lengthened face of the Negro. 

Of the facial angle, and tiic norma vcrticalis of Blumcnbach, we 
shall defer the description till we give Dr. Prichard's views, that the 
reader may not be wearied by too much repetition. Though the 
facial angle is of little value in individual skulls, yet, in comparisons 
of the races, it may give a very good idea of their intellectual power. 
Those animals which have the longest snouts are always considered 
the most stupid and gluttonous. When we descend to reptiles and 
fishes, the jaws seem to constitute almost all the head, and these are 
the most voracious of animals ; they appear to live only to eat. On 
the other hand, a great degree of intelligence is attributed to the ele- 
phant from his well-marked forehead ; and the solemn owl is made 
the companion of the goddess of wisdom, for a similar appearance ; 
but these se7nhlanccs do not depend on any greater development of 
the brain. Intelligent Man, whose animal propensities are subordi- 
nate, has a cranium much larger than hisyrtce; even among men, we 
instinctively regard him as stupid and sensual, w^hose face is very 
prominent and whose forehead is receding ; the advancement of the 
forehead towards the line of the face is always understood by artists 
as representing the noble and elevated character. As we descend in 
the animal scale we find the face increasing at- the expense of the 
cranium. 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

In the Caucasian race the facial angle is from 80° to 85° ; thence 
it decreases in the other varieties of Man as low as 65°, in the nor- 
mal condition ; in many of the ancient statues the facial angle is 90°, 
and in one even 100°, which last never existed in nature except in 
disease. In children the forehead is more prominent than in the 
adult, being usually 90° ; thus is explained their almost uniformly 
pleasing countenances, and also the diminution of their beauty as 
age advances. The Caucasian race, whether we judge it by the 
facial angle, the norma verticalis, or the basal view of Mr. Owen, is 
placed above the other races. 

Three great divisions are recognized in the Caucasian race. The 
Celtic division, comprising the present inhabitants of Western 
Europe, (except the English,) and the ancient Britons, Welch, 
rish, and Scotch. The Germanic division, comprising Germans, 
ancient and modern, Danes, Swedes, Norwegians, Saxons, and 
English, and the inhabitants of the Netherlands and Iceland. The 
Sclavonic division, comprising the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, Cos- 
sacks, the inhabitants of part of Western Asia and Northern 
Africa. 

2. The Mongolian race seems to have originated from the central 
plains of Asia, whence they are supposed to have wandered in all 
directions, into the northern parts of Europe and America, and per- 
haps into the southern parts of Africa. It comprises, according to 
Lawrence, the Mongols, Kalmucks, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese ; 
the inhabitants of Thibet, Tonquin, Siam, Cochin China, the Him- 
alaya Mountains, Hindostan, Ceylon ; the Kamschatdales, Asiatic Rus- 
sians, Finns and Laplanders, and the Esquimaux of Arctic America. 
The ancient Huns belonged to this variety ; these, with iVttila at 
their head, penetrated to the very centre of Europe ; the famous 
Zenghis Khan and Tamerlane belonged to this race, which has 
always been nomadic and predatory. 

The color of the Mongolian skin is olive yellow ; the eyes dark, 
the hair black, straight, and thin ; with very little if any beard, eye- 
brows, or eye-lashes ; the face is broad and flattened ; the features 
not very distinct ; the space between the eyes broad and flat ; the 
orbits large and open ; the nose flattened ; the cheeks high and 
prominent; the opening of the eye-lids narrow, linear, oblique, the 
inner angle the lowest ; chin not prominent ; the ears and lips large. 
The forehead of the Mongolian is low and slanting, allowing a con- 
siderable portion of the face to be seen when the skull is viewed 
vertically from above ; the facial angle is therefore less than in the 
Caucasian. The cranium is narrower, and the face broader, so that 
2* 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

the head has somewhat of a pyramidal form. Tlie stature is infe- 
rior to the Caucasian. 

In intellectual and moral characters it is certainly inferior to the 
white race. The Chinese and Japanese have made considerable 
advancement in the arts of civilization, and their institutions date 
back to a remote period ; but the very fact of their having remained 
stationary for so many centuries proves an inferior capacity for 
improvement. 

3. The Ethiopian race includes the inhabitants of Africa, (exclu- 
sive of the northern parts,) and the imported specimens and their 
descendants in America and elsewhere. The color of the skin 
varies from tawny to jet-black. The iris is black ; the hair black, 
crispy, generally called ^^ woolly, '^^ though having none of the char- 
acters of icool. The eyes are prominent, and the orbits large ; the 
nose thick, flat, and confounded w^ith the prominent cheeks ; the lips 
very thick and everted ; the jaws projecting, the chin receding ; the 
whole face very much developed, and the skull thick and heavy. 

The front of the head regarded from above the face, as well as 
the forehead, is compressed laterally, so that the long diameter of 
the head exceeds that of the other varieties. The low retreating 
forehead allows all the upper part of the face to be seen ; the prom- 
inence of the upper jaw diminishes the facial angle to 70°, and even 
65°. The cavity of the cranium is diminished, while the face is 
increased ; the zygomatic arches are very wide, giving a large space 
for the elevating muscles of the lower jaw ; the opening of the nose 
is large and transverse ; the foramen for the passage of the spinal 
marrov/, and the articulation of the head with the neck, are relatively 
posterior to their position in the white races, from the prolongation 
of the jaws forward. 

A slight comparison of the Negro with the Caucasian skull suf- 
fices to show that the intellectual portion in the former is diminished, 
while the animal portion is increased. The low forehead and the 
muzzle-like elongation of the jaws give an animal aspect to the 
head, which cannot fail to strike an unprejudiced observer ; this is 
increased by the large and powerful lower jaw, the ample provision for 
muscular insertions, and by the greater size of the cavities destined 
for the reception of the organs of smell and sight. 

Lawrence alludes to the opinion, even then prevalent, that the 
Ethiopian resembles the monhcy tribe more nearly than do the pre- 
ceding varieties. The size and direction of the face, the promi- 
nence of the jaws, the flatness of the nose, the greater length of the 
forearm compared with the arm, the narrow and tapering fingers, 
render the comparison obvious. But even supposing that this race 



INTRODUCTION. 19 ' 

is the lowest typo of man, it is none the less human, and far more 
separated from the highest monkey than the highest m«n, by the 
erect attitude, by the possession of two hands, by a slower develop- 
ment, by the powers of reason and speech. The anatomical struct- 
ure of the spine renders it as impossible for a. monkey to assume the 
erect posture, for any length of time, as for a man to go on all 
fours. That there were men, who were called philosophers, fools 
enough to maintain that the natural position of man was that of 
a quadruped, is thus ridiculed in Butler's Hudibras [Part 2nd, 
Canto 1st] : — 

" Next it appears I am no horse, 
That I can argue and discourse, 
Have but two legs, and ne'er a tail, 
duoth she. that nothing will avail, 
For some philosophers of late here 
Write men have four legs by nature, 
And that 'tis custom makes them go 
Erroneously upon two." 

A French savant has recently described, before the Academy of 
Sciences, a tribe of Negroes in Central Africa, as furnishing the long 
desired connecting link between man and monkeys. According to 
him, there are men who have not been sufficiently accustomed to the 
sitting posture to wear off the tail, which he says projects some 
three or four inches. This report, which as yet is based upon 
the appearance of a single individual, will doubtless be explained, if 
there be any foundation for it in truth, by some anatomical peculiar- 
ity which can in no way be called a caudal appendage. 

4. The American race has been traced by theorists to many 
nations ; to the Polynesians, the Mongolians, Plindoos, Jews, and 
Egyptians, singly or combined. Lawrence treats of them as a dis- 
tinct race, difiering from the others in physical, moral, and intellect- 
ual characters. They inhabit the American continent from Cape 
Horn to the Arctic regions, and, with all their diiferences, are con- 
sidered by him as one and the same race over this whole extent. 

The color of the skin is brown, or cinnamon-hued ; the iris dark ; 
the hair long, black and straight ; the beard scanty ; the eyes are 
deep-seated ; the nose flat, but prominent ; the lips full and rounded. 
The face is broad, especially across the cheeks, which are promi- 
nent, but not so angular as in the Mongolian ; the features are dis- 
tinct. The face somewhat resembles the Mongolian, and we shall 
see that many writers, and among them our author, consider the 
Americans as transplanted Mongolians. 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

The general shape of the head is square ; the forehead low, but 
broad ; the back of the head flattened ; the top elevated ; the face 
much developed ; tlie orbitar and nasal cavities large, indicating, 
according to some, a corresponding acuteness of sight and smell : 
the jaws are very strong. 

Their curious modes of deforming the skull will be better 
described when speaking of Dr. S. G. Morton's " Crania Ameri- 
cana." He maintains that the ancient skulls from Peru, from the 
tombs of Mexico, and from the mounds of the Mississippi and Ohio 
valleys, present the same characters as the existing Indian tribes ; 
and that this race is as aboriginal to America, as is the Mongolian 
to Asia, or the Ethiopian to Africa. 

5. The last variety mentioned by Blumenbach and Lawrence is 
the Malay, inhabiting the Asiatic and Polynesian Islands. 

The color of the skin in the true Malay is light brown, or tawny ; 
sometimes, as in the Tahitians, very light. The hair is black, long, 
soft and abundant, — in tiie Tahitians almost yellow ; thick beards 
are not uncommon. The eyes are moderately separated ; the nose 
prominent, but broad and thickest at the end ; in the words of Law- 
rence they are " bottle-nosed ;" the mouth is large, the lips thick; 
the face broad and largely developed ; the jaws prominent ; the fore- 
head low and slanting. It is truly an amphibious race, and its home 
may be said to be on the water ; its extended migrations by sea have 
been traced, as Dr. Pickering maintains, even to the western coast 
of North America. 

Those who believe in the origin of mankind from a single pair 
must, of course, account for the changes man has undergone since 
Adam. 

Climate has been generally brought forward to explain the differ- 
ences in color, and even the varieties of form. Blumenbach gives 
three arguments, of which Lawrence,* who quotes them in his work, 
says, " That so able a writer could find no better proofs in support of 
his opinion, only shows how completely unfounded that opinion is." 
After many examples, Lawrence gives the following conclusions: 
That the differences of the human races are analogous in kind and 
degree to those of the breeds of the domestic animals, and must be 
accounted for on the same principles. That they are first produced 
in both instances as native or congenital varieties, and then trans- 
mitted to the offspring. That the state of domestication is the most 
powerful predisposing cause of varieties in the animal kingdom. 

* Lectures on the Natural History of I\Ian : hy William Lawrence, 
F. R. S. 12th Edition. London, 1814. 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

That climate, situation, food, mode of life, have considerable effect in 
altering the constitution of man and animals ; but that this effect is 
confined to the individual, is not transmitted by g-eneration, and 
therefore does not affect the race. That the human species, like 
that of the cow, sheep, horse, and pig-, is single ; and that all the 
differences which it exhibits are to be regarded merely as varieties. 



Dr. Prichard, the most zealous and learned advocate of the unity 
of the human race, commences his second section'^ as follows : 
" The Sacred Scriptures, whose testimony is received by all men of 
unclouded minds with implicit and reverential assent, declare that it 
pleased the Almighty Creator to make of one blood all the nations 
of the earth, and that all mankind are the offspring of common par- 
ents. But there are writers in the present day who maintain that 
this assertion does not comprehend the uncivilized inhabitants of 
remote regions ; and that Negroes, Hottentots, Esquimaux, and 
Australians, are not, in fact, men in the full sense of that term, or 
beings endowed Vvith like mental faculties as ourselves." These 
half-brutes, half-men, do not belong to what Bory de Saint Vincent 
calls the " Race Adamique ;" they were created to be the slaves of 
the superior races ; and are capable of improvement to an extent 
comparable to that attained by dogs or horses. Such men think it 
the extreme of folly for England to have recently emancipated from 
West Indian slavery a tribe of Negroes, exactly in the situation for 
which nature designed them. There are not a few in this country 
who cherish, if they do not express, a similar opinion. But in mat- 
ters of scientific inquiry, all considerations, not bearing on the im- 
mediate facts in the case, must be set aside ; the maxim to follow is 
"fiat justitia, ruat ccelum." "In fact, what is actually true it is 
always most desirable to know, whatever consequences may arise 
from its admission." 

As the signification of the word "species" has been variously 
understood, he defines species as " simply tribes of plants or of ani- 
mals which are certainly known, or may be inferred, on satisfactory 
grounds, to have descended from the same stocks, or from parent- 
ages precisely similar, and in no way distinguished from each 
other." The principal object of his work is to point out the most 
important diversities by which the genus Man is separated into 

* The Natural History of Man; by James Cowles Prichard, M. D. 

London, 1848. 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

different races, and to determine if these races are separate species, 
or merely varieties of one species. Permanent varieties, if we 
allow the existence of such tribes, come very near species, and 
may be defined as " races now displaying characteristic peculiarities 
which are constantly and permanently transmitted ;" differing from 
species in that the peculiarities are not coeval with the tribe, but 
have arisen since the commencement of its existence : it is not un- 
likely that many so called distinct species of animals and plants are 
in reality only permanent varieties. 

It has been laid down as a law of nature, that, in order to prevent 
inextricable confusion in. the vegetable and animal kingdoms, the off- 
spring of different species, or hybrids, are incapable of reproducing 
tlieir kind, thus making hybridity a test of specific character. 'J'his 
has been denied by many naturalists, among others by Dr. S. G. 
Morton, of Philadelphia, whose views will be given hereafter. Ac- 
cording to Wagner, hybrid plants are very rarely produced in a 
state of nature ; they are very seldom fruitful among themselves ; 
those holding intermediate places between the parent plants are abso- 
lutely barren, while those which nearly resemble one or the other 
parent are occasionally propagated ; and plants from different varie- 
ties of the same species are altogether fertile, while hybrids eitlier 
return to the original character, or become gradually less capable of 
reproduction, and in a short time extinct. So, in animals, mules or 
hybrids are produced among domesticated tribes ; but, except in a 
few tribes of birds, they are unknown in a state of nature, A new 
breed cannot be perpetuated from them, and their offspring can only 
be continued by returning to one of the parent tribes. Wagner 
believes that nature has established the sterility of hybrid animals 
by an organic impediment. 

If these results are true, we are forced to the conclusion that the 
different races of men must be either incapable of mixing their stock, 
and must ever be separate from each other, or that these races belong 
to the same species. 

It is a fact that the most dissimilar varieties of man are capable 
of propagating prolific offspring with each other. The Mulattoes, 
from the mixture of the Negroes with Whites, are said to be increas- 
ing in numbers, as well as the mixed race of the Creoles and the 
Negroes. The Griqua Hottentots, descended from the Dutch colo- 
nists of South Africa on one side, and from the aboriginal Hotten- 
tots on the other, are a numerous and rapidly increasing race. The 
Cafusos of Brazil, so remarkable for their monstrous heads of hair, 
are known to have descended fVom the native Americans, mixed with 
the imported Africans. The Papuas, with equally remarkable hair, 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

are a mixture of the Mala}'^ with the Negro in New Guinea and 
the neighboring islands; according to Lesson, most of them are a 
frail and feeble race. We hence derive conclusive proof, unless 
there be in the human races an exception .to tliis acimitted law of 
nature, that all the tribes of men belong to one, species and family. 

If we could compare our breeds of domestic animals with their 
original wild stocks, we could easily ascertain the limits of variation 
in these breeds ; but the wild originals cannot now be recognized. 
However, in the animals known to have been imported into America 
from Europe since the fifteenth century, we have an abundance of 
materials for interesting observations ; these animals have greatly 
multiplied, and many, running wild in the forests, have lost all 
appearances of domestication ; the wild tribes are physically differ- 
ent from their tame originals, and there is reason to believe that the 
change is in the direction of the wild stocks from which the tame 
animals originated. 

The hogs of the forest very nearly resemble the wild boar ; their 
ears have become erect ; their color has changed to black ; instead 
of hair and bristles, their skin is covered with thick, often crisp fur, 
under which is sometimes a species of wool ; their heads become 
larger ; indeed, they are returning gradually to the appearance of 
the wild boar of Europe. The difference between the skulls of the 
domestic hog and the wild boar is as great as that between the Euro- 
pean and the Negro skull. The horse, the ass, the cow, the sheep, 
the goat, the dog, and gallinaceous fowls, show similar changes, and 
a tendency to return to the primitive wild type. Even the func- 
tions of animal life may be greatly changed in a few generations. 
It is not natural for the cow, any more than for other female animals, 
to yield milk when she has no young to nourish ; the permanent pro- 
duction of milk is a modified animal function, produced by an artifi- 
cial habit for several generations. In Colum.bia, the practice of 
milking cows having been laid aside, the natural state of the func- 
tion has been restored ; the secretion of milk continues only during 
the suckling of the calf, and is only an occasional phenomenon. 
Says Roulin, " If the calf dies, the milk ceases to flow, and it is 
only by keeping him with his dam by day that an opportunity of 
obtaining milk from cows by night can be found." The horses 
on the table land of the Cordilleras are taught very early a sort of 
running amble, quite different from their natural gait ; these horses 
become the sires of a race to which the ambling pace is natural, 
and requires no teaching. The dogs employed in hunting the pec- 
cary are taught the peculiar way necessary to take this animal ; 
their offspring inherit as an instinct the lesson of their fathers, and 



24 INTRODUCTIOX. 

on the first chase knew how to attack the peccary, while an ordinary 
dog is instantly killed by them. The barking of dogs is an acquired 
hereditary instinct, supposed to have originated in an attempt to imi- 
tate the human voice ; wild dogs, and domestic breeds become wild, 
never bark, but howl. Cats, which so disturb civilized communities 
by their midnight " caterwaul," in the wild state in South America 
are quite silent. 

These well-authenticated facts show to what extent a change of 
external conditions may modify races of animals. Similar changes 
may be found among our domesticated breeds. For instance, the 
breeds of sheep differ greatly in different countries ; but it is main- 
tained that they all are varieties of one species. New breeds of 
sheep are frequently formed, (and very much as the breeder wishes,) 
by crossing well-known races, or individuals having the peculiarities 
which it is desired should be transmitted to the new breed. In the 
same manner, he says, the numerous varieties of horses are without 
doubt members of but one species ; Blumenbach has remarked that 
there is more difference between the skulls of the Neapolitan and 
Hungarian breeds of horses, than between the skulls of the most 
dissimilar forms of mankind. Some naturalists suppose the dog to 
belong to the same species as the wolf; others derive him from the 
jackal. With all their varieties, Frederic Cuvier believes the dogs 
to embrace but one species ; he observes that if we make more than 
one species we must make at least fifty, all distinguished by perma- 
nent characters. Restored to the wild state, all these varieties 
approximate to the type which may be supposed to have belonged to 
the original species. Dogs differ in stature, in the shape of their 
ears and tails, in the number of caudal vertebrae ; some have an 
additional claw on the hind foot, and an additional false molar tooth 
on one side ; the hair differs in color, texture and length, according 
to the climate in the first instance ; but these differences become per- 
manent like the corresponding peculiarities of the human races ; the 
varieties of the dog tribe have become 'permanent varieties. 

This tendency to variation he ascribes not to accident, but a 
" nisus formativus," a vital power "in virtue of which organiza- 
tion receives a peculiar direction from external circumstances." 
Varieties in form and structure are found in the offspring of the 
same parents whicli are transmissible, and thus lay the foundation 
for different breeds ; but these variations are within certain limits, - 
and leave unaltered the specific character. It is not always easy to 
decide what the specific characters are, and what qualities are vari- 
able. The shape of the head furnishes the most remarkable in- 
stances of variety and of characters distinguishing races ; the length 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

and thickness of the neck are very characteristic of breeds of horses ; 
Meckel remarks that the length, height, and proportional breadth of 
the hinder parts, the length and thickness of the tail, the shape of 
the pelvis, and comparative length of the limbs, are characteristic 
of different races. The physiological and psychological differences 
we have seen are equally remarkable. 

Races of men are subject, more than the races of almost any ani- 
mals, to the varied agencies of climate ; civilization produces in 
them greater changes than does domestication in animals ; and we 
ought, therefore, to expect as great diversities among men as among 
brutes, and indeed far greater, from the powerful influence of mind 
in the former. 

To proceed with the variations of the human species, we are at 
first struck with the differences of color. The difference of color 
has generally been thought less important in the discrimination of 
the races than varieties in the form of the skull ; but M. Flourens 
considers it more characteristic of distinct races than any other 
peculiarity. He displayed before the French Academy of Sciences 
four distinct layers between the outer cuticle and the cutis, viz., a 
cellular and reticular tissue lying immediately on the cutis ; then a 
continuous membrane resembling mucous membrane in general ; then 
a black pigment, hardly coherent enough to be termed a membrane ; 
and, lastly, the interior portion of the epidermis, which he divides 
into two laminae. The second of these he considers a distinct 
organized body, existing only in men of dark color, or, at least, he 
failed to detect it in the white races by the ordinary method of mac- 
eration. He was unable to find any membrane in the white races, 
interposed between the cutis and the inner coat of the epidermis ; 
this last being, according to him, the seat of the discoloration of 
the white skin from exposure to the sun, as well as the seat of the 
brown color of the areola mammarum. This diversity he regards 
as a specific distinction, "or as marking out the Negro and Euro- 
pean as separate species of beings." 

The supposition of M. Flourens will hardly account for many 
discolorations of the skin which are frequent in Europeans. Dur- 
ing pregnancy, the mammae of many females are extensively sur- 
rounded by a dark tinge, which afterwards mostly disappears ; in 
some individuals the dark color pervades a great part of the body ; 
so that, independently of the solar heat, certain constitutional condi- 
tions may impart to the white skin a dark hue similar to that nat- 
ural to the African race. On the other hand, instances are recorded 
(in Philos. Trans., vol. 57) of the disappearance of the coloring 
matter in Negroes, who have become as white as Europeans. 
3 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

Microscopical investigation has shown that the skin does not consist 
of continuous membranes, but is composed of several layers of cells 
not separated from each other by such definite lines. Henle has found 
that the apparently membranous parts, which give color to various 
surfaces, are also of a cellular structure, and not properly mem- 
branous ; in the skin of the Negro he found numerous irregularly 
spherical cells containing the black pigment to which the color is 
due ; they were most numerous on those parts of the rele which pro- 
ject and correspond to the furrows of the cutis. Dr. Simon, of 
Berlin, has found that the various discolorations of the white skin 
depend on the presence of similar cells filled with pigment, and that 
they are related on the one hand to the normal coloration of the 
Negro skin, and on the other to the disease termed melanosis, in 
which " the production of pigment cells keeps pace with a change 
from the normal or healthy state of organization in the affected parts." 

He thence concludes that there is no organic difference between 
the skin of the Negro and the European, which marks them as dis- 
tinct species. It may also be added that the epidermic tissue, to 
which the horny tissue of many animals corresponds, and which is the 
seat of the variations in color and in the hair of man, " is precisely 
that part of the organic system which undergoes the most striking and 
even surprising alterations." The complexions of mankind are not 
permanent characters ; there are many changes from white to black, 
and vice versa, and both complexions are seen in the undoubted prog- 
eny of the same stock ; so that no argument, according to Prich- 
ard, can be drawn from color agatnst the original unity of the human 
species. 

The human races have also been distinguished by the color, quality, 
and quantity of the hair ; these national diversities probably do not 
exceed the measure of variety occurring in different families of the 
same nation. Some Europeans are said to have hair quite as crisp 
and curly as that of a Negro ; even among Negroes, we find every 
variety from a so-called "woolly" hair to curled or even flowing 
hair ; the same is affirmed of the natives of the Southern Ocean, 
where there is no intermixture of races. The nature of the Negro 
hair has been the subject of much discussion, as it was supposed to 
possess characters indicating a distinct species. The Negro hair is 
called "wool," meaning that it approaches the wool of animals. 
The fibre of true wool is rough on its surface, and has a feathered 
or barbed edge ; this is at the same time the cause of its felting prop- 
erty, and the mark which distinguishes it from hair. Examined 
microscopically, the fibre of wool generally has serrated edges, 
resulting " from a structure resembling a series of inverted cones, 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

encircling a central stem, the apex of one cone being received into 
the base of the superior one." Hair, though sometimes rough and 
covered with scales, has no serrations, or tooth-like projections; it 
is an even-sided tube, smooth, and nearly of equal calibre. 

The hair of the dark races is not wool, but a curled and twisted 
hair ; it has the appearance of a cylinder with a smooth surface ; 
the coloring matter is the most abundant in the Negro hair ; the 
Abyssinian hair, very dark, had a riband-like band running through 
the middle of the tube, as did also the Mulatto hair ; European hair 
seemed almost entirely transparent, like an empty tube. Even if 
that of the Negro were " wool," it would not prove him a distinct 
species, since we know that, in some tribes of animals, some of a spe- 
cies bear wool, while others of the same species are covered with hair. 

Since the time of Camper and Blumenbach, anatomists have 
attempted to classify mankind according to the shape of the skull ; 
but hardly any two writers have agreed as to the number of the 
divisions and their exact limitation. One of their fundamental 
principles seems to be wrong, viz., that tribes resembling each other 
in the shape of their skulls must needs be more nearly related to 
each other than to tribes having a differently formed head. As sim- 
ilar causes may have produced similar effects on widely different 
people, any particular anatomical character so produced can afford 
no proof of near relationship. If there be any such relation between 
the physical characters of different tribes and the chief circumstances 
of their external condition, there may be pointed out three principal 
varieties, which are prevalent in the savage or hunting tribes, in 
the nomadic or wandering races, and in the civilized divisions of 
mankind. Among savages and hunters, among whom are the lowest 
Africans and Australians, the jaws are prolonged forwards, consti- 
tuting the prognathous form of the head ; among the wandering 
Mongolians, we have broad, lozenge-shaped faces, and the pyramidal 
skull ; while the civilized races have the oval or elliptical skull. 
There are numerous instances of transition from one of these forms 
to another, when a nation has changed its manner of life ; for 
instance, the nomadic Turks of Central Asia have a strongly marked 
pyramidal skull, while their civilized brethren of the Ottoman 
Empire have the European or oval form. The three principal ways 
of viewing the skull are laterally, vertically, and from below ; these 
three combined enable us to form an idea of all its characters. 

Camper says, " The basis on which the distinction of nations is 
founded, may be displayed by two straight lines ; one of which is to 
be drawn through the meatus auditorius, or opening of the ear, to the 
base of the nose, and the other touching the prominent centre of the 



28 - INTRODUCTION. 

forehead, and falling thence on the most advancing part of the 
upper jawbone, the head being viewed in profile." This gives the 
facial angle. For the posterior part of the skull, the occipital angle 
may be measured in a similar manner. Though these measurements 
may be sufficient for the physiognomist, they are not for the geome- 
trician, on account of the varying thickness of the skull, the devel- 
opment of the cavities in the forehead, frontal sinuses, and the dif- 
ferent projection of the teeth, even in adults ; and, moreover, they 
only measure the skull in one part. To obviate this, Cuvier pro- 
posed to compare the areas of the cranium and face sawed vertically 
from before backwards ; the section of the face is triangular ; that 
of the cranium an oval. In the Caucasian the area of the cranium 
is four times that of the face ; in the Negro the area of the face is 
one fifth larger. 

To measure th^ breadth of the skull and the projection of the 
face, Blumenbach proposed the " norma verticalis." Says he, " The 
best way of obtaining this end is to place a series of skulls, with 
the cheek-bones on the same horizontal line, resting on the lower 
jaws; and then, viewing them from behind, and fixing the eye on 
the vertex of each, to mark all the varieties in the shape of parts 
that contribute most to the national character, whether they consist 
in the direction of the maxillary and malar bones, in the breadth or 
narrowness of the oval figure presented by the vertex, or in the 
flattened or vaulted form of the frontal bone." Thus compared, 
he makes three varieties in the vertical view, strongly distinguished 
from each other; the Caucasian, Mongolian, and Ethiopian. 

In no view does the human skull contrast more strongly with that 
of the quadrumana, than when its base is examined, as suggested by 
Mr. Owen. In the orang the antero-posterior diameter of the base 
is much longer than in man ; the zygomatic arches are situated also 
quite diiferently. In all races of men, even in idiots, the whole 
zygoma is included in the anterior half of the basis cranii, while in 
the highest monkey it is placed in the middle region of the skull, 
and occupies about one third of the entire long diameter. The 
occipital foramen in all the lower animals is further back than in the 
human head ; in man this foramen is " immediately behind a transverse 
line dividing the basis cranii into two equal parts, or bisecting the 
antero-posterior diameter." It is situated exactly alike in all human 
races, if due allowance be made for the protuberance of the jaws in 
the lower types. 

In well-formed European heads, lines drawn from the zygomatic 
arches, touching the temples, and meeting over the forehead, are 
parallel. But in the pyramidal skull, characterized by great lateral 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

projection of these arches, these two lines form with the basis a tri- 
angular figure. Another characteristic in the face belonging to the 
pyramidal skull, is the obliquity of the aperture of the eyelids; this 
is not due to any want of parallelism in the orbits, but to the struc- 
ture of the lids ; the skin being tightly drawn over the prominent 
malar bones at the outer angle of the eyes, and smoothly drawn over 
the low nasal bones, gives to the eye the appearance of having the 
inner angle directed downwards. The pyramidal and prognathous 
skulls being adapted to the nomadic and hunter state, if " either of 
these were the original condition of mankind, then were the first 
men probably in form like the Esquimaux or the Negro." 

The stature, relative size of the limbs and trunk, and the propor- 
tions of different parts of the body, vary much in the different 
races of men ; these differences have been considered by some as 
amounting to specific distinctions. One of the principal of these dif- 
ferences is found in the pelvis. Vrolik says it fs difficult to sepa- 
rate from the female Negro pelvis the idea of degradation, so much 
does it approach the form in the Simiae in the vertical direction of 
the ossa ilii and its elongated shape ; he considers the Hottentot pel- 
vis as indicating greater " animality in comparison even with the 
Negro." Weber has reduced the forms of the human pelvis to four, 
the oval, most frequent in Europeans ; the round, most frequent in 
the American nations ; the square, in people resembling the Mongo- 
lians ; and the oblong, or wedge-shaped, most common in the nations 
of Africa. He thinks these answer to the corresponding form of the 
skull in the several nations. Prichard thinks that no particular 
figure is a permanent characteristic of any one race. 

As to other parts of the skeleton, in some particulars the less 
civilized races bear some remote resemblance to the lower animals. 
Uncivilized men, like uncivilized breeds of animals, have lean, slender, 
and elongated limbs. These he considers as mere variations, as the 
same causes which produce them in individuals might influence a 
whole race. In the Negro the bones of the leg are bent outwards 
and forwards ; the calves of the legs are very high ; the feet are flat, 
and the os calcis is continued in a straight line with the other bones 
of the foot, and is more prominent behind ; the length of the fore- 
arm is also relatively greater ; but these differences are said to be no 
greater than are observed every day in individuals of any race. 
Prichard divides the human races principally according to the rela- 
tions of their languages, which of all endowments " seem to be the 
most permanently retained, and can be shown in many cases to have 
survived even very considerable changes in physical and moral char- 
acters." The system adopted by Cuvier referred the original seats 
3* 



80 INTRODUCTION. 

of the human race to certain lofty mountain chains. The birth-place 
of the men who peopled Europe and Western Asia is supposed to 
have been Mount Caucasus ; hence the term "Caucasian " as applied 
to them. The nations of Eastern Asia were derived from the neigh- 
borhood of Mount Altai ; and the African Negroes from the southern 
face of the chain of Mount Atlas. The tradition in the Hebrew^ 
Scriptures places the birth-place of mankind on the banks of four 
great rivers, two of which have been recognized as the Tigris and 
Euphrates, in a land rich in animal and vegetable productions. 
Prichard recognizes three great centres of the earliest civilization of 
the human race, comprising most of the tribes known to antiquity. 
" In one of these, the Semitic or Syro-Arabian nations exchanged 
the simple habits of wandering shepherds for the splendor and lux- 
ury of Nineveh and Babylon. In a second, the Indo-European or 
Japetic people brought to perfection the most elaborate of human 
dialects, destined*to become, in after times and under different modi- 
fications, the mother tongue of the nations of Europe. In a third, 
the land of Ham, watered by the Nile, were invented hieroglyphical 
literature and the arts, in which Egypt far surpassed all the rest of 
the world in the earlier ages of history." 

These three divisions do not correspond to the three departments 
of mankind as indicated by the form of the skull ; the former were 
neither nomades nor savages, but were more or less civilized and 
had the corresponding oval form of skull. Yet he would trace a 
gradual deviation from this type to the lower, e. g., from the Egyp- 
tian to the Negro, without any decided interruption ; though he 
admits '' that these approximations require further inquiry and more 
precise proofs before they can be admitted as furnishing the ground- 
work of an ethnological system." 

His Syro-Arabian or Semitic race includes the Syrians, the Jews, 
the Arabs. According to Baron Larrey, the Arabian race fur- 
nishes the most perfect type of the human head, and he believes 
" that the cradle of the human family is to be found in the country of 
this race." 

The Egyptian or Hamitic race contrasts strongly with the Se- 
mitic, the latter being full of energy and restless activity, the former 
living in luxurious ease on the rich soil watered by the Nile. They 
are equally different in their intellectual and moral characters ; the 
one still living in its energetic and ever-roving descendants, the 
other reposing in its own land, which is little else than a vast 
sepulchre. According to Denon, the Egyptians display the " gen- 
uine African character, of which the Negro is the exaggerated and 
extreme representation." Some have called the Egyptians Negroes ; 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

others think them Caucasians ; Prichard coincides with Denon, as 
above quoted. More respecting this race will be given when speak- 
ing of Dr. Morton's Crania Egyptiaca. 

The Indo-European, .Tapetic, or Arian race, includes the Hin- 
doos, Persians, Afghans, Baluchi and Brahiii, the Kurds, the 
Armenians, and the Ossetines. It comprises also the numerous and 
far-spread colonies of the race in Europe and America. Prichard 
believes that the Arian race, on their arrival in Europe, found the 
country already occupied by what he terms " Allophylian" nations ; 
for instance, the Celts found Spain inhabited by the Iberian tribes, 
who preserved the possession of the Pyrenean chain at the era of 
the Roman conquest, and whose descendants, even now, are found 
there in the Basque mountaineers, or Biscay ans, (according to Hum- 
boldt) ; so the Northmen found the countries on the Baltic coast 
occupied by nations of the Finnish or Ugrian race, of the same east- 
ern origin as themselves, but emigrants of an earlier age. 

The five great Nomadic races inhabit the great central region 
of High Asia, and belong to the Mongolian division of authors ; 
they are all characterized by the pyramidal form of the skull. 

These five races are, the Ugrian race, in the north-west, of which 
the Finns and Lappes, the Tschudes, the Ugrians, (whence the 
name Ogre, the prototype of fabled savage monsters,) the Ostiaks of 
the Obi, (from whom are descended the Magyars, or Hungarians 
of central Europe,) and other Siberian tribes, are varieties. 

The Turkish race, often erroneously called Tartars, formerly 
occupied all the countries from the north of China to Mount Altai. 
The present Turkish nations display two different types of coun- 
tenance ; the Nomadic tribes, in the ancient abodes of the race, dis- 
play strongly the Mongolian type, while the Turks of the Ottoman 
empire have very nearly the European form. Some writers have 
explained this change by an intermixture of races, which Prichard 
thinks is contradicted by the evidence of their languages. 

The Mongolian race, including the Kalmuks, strongly displays 
the broad face and pyramidal skull of this division of the human 
family. The Tungusians wander over the mountainous regions 
which extend from Lake Baikal to the Sea of Okhotsk ; within the 
Chinese dominions they are called Mantschu. According to Kla- 
proth, the languages of the Tungusians, Mongolians, and Turks 
have a remarkable connection between them ; and the Mantschu, 
in particular, corresponds singularly in its vocabulary with other 
Asiatic, and still more with European, languages. The Bhotiyahs 
are a race often termed Tartars, inhabiting a great part of Tibet and 
the Himalayan chain. They are Buddhist, and have peculiar mar- 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

riage customs ; one woman is generally the wife of a whole family 
of brothers ; this appears " less injurious in a physical point of 
view than the more frequent sort of polygamy." A vast amount 
of literature is preserved in their language in tlie monasteries of 
Tibet. 

To the nations with pyramidal skulls belong the races bordering 
on the Arctic Ocean, which are styled Ichthyophagi, or Fishing 
Tribes, which sufficiently describes their habits of life. They 
include the Namollos of the north-east of Asia and the Aleutian 
islands, akin to the Esquimaux of America, the Koriaks, the 
Kamtschatkans, the Yukagiri of Eastern Siberia, the Samoiedes, and 
the Kurilians. To this division also belong the Koreans, the Chi- 
nese, and the Japanese ; the races of the Indo-Chinese peninsula 
beyond the Ganges ; — the aboriginal races of India distinct from the 
Hindoos, (who belong to the Arabian stock,) and inhabiting their 
present localities long before the latter passed the river Indus ; viz., 
the Singhalese, comprising all the races of Ceylon, except the 
Tamulian ; the Tamulians, inhabiting part of Ceylon, and the 
greater part of the Dekhan or Indian Peninsula, and the Parbatya, 
or mountain tribes of the Dekhan. 

Among the " Allophylian" races, inhabiting mountains difficult 
of access, in the midst of regions long since conquered by the Ara- 
bian and Syro-Arabian races, may be mentioned the Caucasians, 
inhabiting to this day the chain of Caucasus, and successfully resist- 
ing all the attempts of the Russians to conquer them ; they are 
mostly people of European features and form. The Iberians of the 
Pyrenees have been already alluded to ; to these may be added the 
Lybians and the Berbers of the Northern Atlas, also extended to the 
Canary Islands, under the name of " Guanches," whose custom of 
embalming their dead and depositing them in catacombs reminds us 
of the ancient Egyptians, though the embalming process was 
different. 

In his introductory remarks on the African races, Prichard says, 
" If we trace the intervening countries between Egypt and Sene- 
gambia, and carefully note the physical qualities of the inhabitants, 
we shall have no difficulty in recognizing almost every degree or 
stage of deviation successively displayed, and showing a gradual 
transition from the characters of the Egyptian to those of the Negro, 
without any broadly marked line of abrupt separation. The char- 
acteristic type of one division of the human species here passes into 
another, and that by almost imperceptible degrees." 

The countries above Egypt are inhabited by two races, one 
aboriginal, or the Nubians of the Red Sea, and the other foreign, or 



INTEODUCTION. 33 

the Nubians of the Nile ; the color of the former, and their hair, is 
different from that of the Negro ; they are a handsome people, of 
fine form and features ; the latter are supposed to be the descend- 
ants of the Nobatae, "broug-ht fifteen centuries ago from an oasis in the 
western country, by Diocletian, to inhabit the valley of the Nile ;" 
Prichard thinks they furnish an instance of the transition from the 
Negro to the ancient Egyptians, though he admits that the evidence 
is open to many sources of fallacy. 

The Abyssinians, a fine, dark, but not Negro people, are inter- 
esting, as having preserved alone, " in the heart of Africa, and in 
the midst of Moslem and Pagan nations, its peculiar literature, and 
its ancient Christian Church ;" it has also extensive remains of a 
wide-spread Judaism, and a language approaching, more nearly than 
any living tongue, to the pure Hebrew. Abyssinia has been overrun 
lately by the Galla, a barbarous people, who approach more nearly 
to the Negro type. 

Of the black races of the interior of Africa, the principal are the 
Senegambian nations, viz., the Mandingos, remarkable for their 
industry and energy of character, and who carry on the principal 
trafiic of northern Africa, and the Fulahs, who are supposed by 
some to be an offset of the Polynesian race. 

The true Negro characters are most strongly displayed on the 
sea-coast, " which encircles the projecting region of Western Africa, 
to the inmost angle of the Bight at Benin ;" the region which has 
been the centre of the slave-trade, and whose inhabitants are reduced 
to the lowest physical and moral degradation. One peculiarity of 
the African cranium is said to be that " the sphenoidal bone fails to 
reach the parietal bones, so that the coronal suture, instead of 
impinging upon the sphenoidal, as it does in most European heads, 
and in the human cranium in general, joins the margin of the tem- 
poral bone." This peculiarity has been given as a distinguishing 
mark between the orang and the chimpanze, but it is by no means 
constant. 

In the vast regions of South Africa, in a country analogous to the 
high region of Eastern Asia, we find nations which may be com- 
pared with the Nomadic Mongolian races. The Hottentots, and 
their oppressed descendants, the Bushmen, in the width of their 
orbits, and their distance from each other, in the form of the eye, 
the prominent cheek-bones, and the large size of the occipital fora- 
men, resemble the Chinese and the Northern Asiatics, and even the 
Esquimaux. 

The warlike Kafirs, to the north of the Hottentots, are said to 
have the high forehead and prominent nose of the European, the 



34 INTRODUCTION. 

thick lips of the Negro, and the high cheek-bones of the Hottentot. 
Very likely they may be a mixed race. 

The Mozambique tribes resemble the Kafirs, and, were it not for 
their black color and woolly hair, would be a handsome race. The 
African nations between Cape Lopez and Cape Negro are true 
Negroes, though some of their skulls have less than usual of the 
prognathous character, and more of the pyramidal form. 

The nations of Africa, limited to those with woolly hair, do not 
agree in the form of the skull, and cannot be reduced to any particu- 
lar stock or number of races. 

The races of Oceanica he divides into three groups, the Malayo- 
Polynesian, comprising a family of nations whose near aflUnity has 
been established by Humboldt ; the Pelagian Negroes, of dark 
complexion and crisp hair, more or less resembling African Ne- 
groes ; and the Alforas, " savages of dark color, lank hair, and 
prognathous heads," including the natives of Australia. Great as 
is the physical difference between these nations, Prichard thinks 
there is full proof of unity of descent in the whole class, and attrib- 
utes their diversities to spontaneous variation. This, without settling, 
only postpones the dilflieulty. 

The first group contains the Malays proper, a people of short 
stature and slender limbs, with flat faces, and features resembling 
the Chinese, though their complexion is darker ; the Polynesians, of 
whom Lesson considers the Tahitians as the type ; handsome races, 
whose heads might be called European, were it not for the spread- 
ing out of the nostrils, and the too great thickness of the lips ; and 
the natives of Madagascar, some of whose tribes approximate to the 
European character of the Polynesians. 

The second group of Pelagian Negroes occupies the interior of 
many of the islands of the Indian Archipelago ; those of the Philip- 
pine Islands inhabit the mountains, and resemble the nations of 
Guinea, wandering about like beasts, and supporting themselves by 
fruits of spontaneous growth ; the natives of Van Diemen's Land, 
or Tasmanians, belong to this group, and have the compressed and 
elongated skull and prognathous jaws of the Negro. 

The third group, the Alforians, inhabits the interior of New 
Guinea and many of the larger islands to the southward of the 
Indian Ocean ; those of New Guinea, according to Lesson, have 
*' fiat noses, cheek-bones projecting, large eyes, prominent teeth, 
long and slender legs, very black and thick hair, rough and shining, 
without being woolly ; their beards coarse and thick, and an 
excessive stupidity stamped upon their countenances." The tribes 
of the north-east of Borneo are a savage and piratical race, eating 



INTRODUCTION. 85 

the flesh of their enemies. Among- the inhabitants of the eastern 
isles, a singular custom is the necessity for every person, some 
time in his life, to shed human blood ; and generally no person can 
marry till he can show the skull of a human victim. The Austra- 
lians are supposed to belong to this group ; they resemble, in the 
form of their skulls, the Tasmanians ; they are a lean and half- 
starved race, with disproportioned size of head and limbs, if the 
representations taken from the atlas of M. d'Urville are correct. 

The American nations show characters which are common to all, 
and exhibit strong proofs of a community of origin, and of very 
ancient relationship. As they probably existed as a separate depart- 
ment from the earliest ages of the world, we cannot expect to find 
proofs of their derivation from any tribes of the Old World. 
Though they have been called " Red Men," there are tribes equally 
red, he says, in Africa and Polynesia. Anatomists have described 
an American form of the skull, which he thinks incorrect, and 
founded on the study of a few well-marked tribes. The habits of 
these nations are equally different ; some are hunters, some fisher- 
men, some nomadic, others cultivators of the earth before the arrival 
of Europeans. The most decisive evidence of their relationship is 
in the characteristic structure of their languages. Says Humboldt, 
" In America, from the country of the Esquimaux to the banks of 
the Orinoko, and again, from these torrid banks to the frozen cli- 
mate of the straits of Magellan, mother tongues entirely different 
with regard to their roots, have the same physiognomy." This 
remark of Humboldt has been confirmed by Mr. Gallatin, who says 
that all the languages of the native inhabitants of America, from the 
Arctic Ocean to Cape Plorn, have a distinct character common to 
all, and differing from any of those of the other continent with 
which we are most familiar. Du Ponceau includes even the 
Esquimaux among the American languages. 

Remarkable moral and social traits distinguish the American race 
from the races of the Old World. Dr. Martins believes that the 
American nations are not living in the primitive simplicity of 
nature, but that they are the remains of a people once in a high state 
of civilization and mental improvement, and now in a state of decline 
and degradation ; this he infers from the remains of ancient institu- 
tions of government, of religion, and social refinements. 

It is probable that the Mexican tribes, Toltecs and Aztecs, were 
one race, and that they ascended the central plain of Anahuac, in 
the seventh century, from countries lying to the north, by succes- 
sive arrivals for a long period. These nations were highly 
cultivated in the arts, though their moral condition seems to have 



36 IXTRODUCTION. 

been very low. More of them, when speaking of Dr. Morton's 
Crania Americana. 

Before the arrival of the Mexican foreigners, this plain was 
inhabited by races, some civilized and some barbarous, who have 
left behind them the splendid ruins of Palenque. Among these were 
the Tarascas, the Othomi, the Totonacs, and the Huaxtecas. The 
Othomi were a remarkable people, from the circumstance that, 
■while all other known languages of America are polysyllabic, they 
had a monosyllabic dialect, resembling the Chinese idiom. 

In the countries to the eastward of the Gulf of California, and 
extending northward as far as the rivers Gila and Colorado, ruins 
have been found in various localities, which are supposed to be the 
different resting places of the Aztecs in their migration towards 
Anahuac ; the farthest vestige towards the north of this Mexican 
civilization is in the neighborhood of the Yaquesila, which flows 
into the Rio Colorado. 

Among the aborigines of North America there are only two 
races which can be traced across the Continent, from the Pacific to 
the Atlantic Ocean ; these are the two northern nations of the Esqui- 
maux and the Athapascas. The Esquimaux, subsisting principally 
on what they obtain from the sea, are rarely found more than one 
hundred miles from the coast ; they inhabit America, chiefly north of 
the C0° of north latitude, from the east coast of Greenland, in longitude 
20°, to Behring's Straits, in longitude 167° west; they occupy an 
extent of coast of five thousand four hundred miles ; they have the 
Mongolian cast of countenance. The Athapascas, or Chepewyans, 
extend from the western shore of Hudson's Bay, across the Conti- 
nent to the Pacific ; their southern boundary is Churchill river, 
which falls into Hudson's Bay ; they agree in dress and manners, 
according to Mackenzie, with the Eastern Asiatics. 

The greater part of Canada, and the United States east of the 
Mississippi, at the time of its discovery, was inhabited by two prin- 
cipal races, the Algonquin-Lenape and the Iroquois, or Hurons ; 
both were divided into a great number of tribes, which recognized, 
however, their kindred with each other. The limits of the former 
were, in general terms, Churchill river on the North ; the Atlantic 
coast on the east, from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to Cape Hat- 
teras ; on the south, an irregular line drawn from Cape Hatteras to 
the confluence of the Oliio with the Mississippi ; and, on the west, 
the Mississippi river. The Iroquois, always at war with the for- 
mer, consisted of two bodies — the northern, entirely surrounded by 
the Lenapian tribes, in the neighborhood of Lake Huron ; the south- 
ern were the Tuscaroras, in Virginia and North Carolina. 



INTRODXJCTION. 87 

To the southward were the Alleghanian races, many of whom 
have become extinct ; among them were the Cherokees, the Choc- 
taws, the tribes of the Creek confederacy, Seminoles, Natchez, and 
others. These were the nations among whom Adair thought that 
he recognized the institutions of Judaism, such as a city of refuge, a 
temple where the sacred fire was continually kept burning, &c. 

To the west of the Mississippi are the Sioux and Pawnees ; Mr. 
Gallatin divides the Sioux into four departments, but all of one kin- 
dred, from the evidence of language ; these are the Winebagos, the 
Dahcotas, the Minetari, and the Osages, There are two nations of 
Pawnees, the Pawnees proper, and the Ricarees on the river Platte. 
On the sides of the Rocky Mountains are the Black-feet and the 
Rapid Indians, with their numerous families; in their neighborhood 
are the Snake Indians ; further south the Utahs and Paducas ; and in 
New Mexico the Apaches. 

The races of the Pacific coast of North America may be divided 
into three sections. The Californian nations inhabit a region barren, 
rocky, and sandy, and deficient in water, and of a climate excessively 
hot and dry, exactly opposite in every respect to the north-western 
tracts ; they are of a much deeper hue than the American natives 
generally, so that La Perouse compared them to Negroes ; they have 
low foreheads, and prominent cheek-bones ; they approach, in the 
shape of the head and in features, to the nations of New Guinea, and 
New Hebrides. New California appears to have a fine race of dark 
people. 

The tribes of the North-west coast and the Columbia river, from 
New California to Mt. St. Elias, are very different from the hunt- 
ing races of the Missouri. The prevailing westerly winds of the 
northern Pacific render the climate moist and milder than correspond- 
ing regions of the interior. The northern tribes, from the Arctic 
circle to Vancouver's Island, including the tribes of the Russian ter- 
ritories, are bold, industrious, and ingenious ; the females have the 
singular custom of perforating the lower lip, and wearing in it a 
wooden ornament. The southern tribes have been called Nootka- 
Columbians, which indicates their locality. The practice of flatten- 
ing the head in infancy is universal among them, but unknown to the 
north. To this family belong the Chenooks, the Flat-heads, the 
Clatsops, and others ; they are distinguished for their love of music. 

Dr. Prichard thinks the northern tribes more interesting than the 
last, as they furnish an example, according to him, of a white 
American race, which, compared with the black Californians, bears 
a relation to climate similar to the white Europeans of the Old 
World compared with the black Africans. The idioms of the Noot- 
4 



88 INTRODUCTION. 

ka-Columbians bear a remote affinity, as well as those of the northern 
tribes, to the Azteca-Mexican ; " a fact which recalls the tradition 
that the Nahuatlacas originated from a region far to the north ; the 
language of Nootka bears strong resemblance to the Mexican in the 
terminations of words, and the frequent recurrence of the same con- 
sonants." 

M. D'Orbigny divides the South American nations into three 
families ; the Andian group, or Alpine nations, including the Peru- 
vians, the Antisians, and the Araucanians ; the Brazilio-Guarani, 
from the foot of the Peruvian Andes, eastward to the Atlantic, 
including the vast plains of the Orinoko and the Amazon ; and the 
Mediterranean group, in the central and southern parts of the con- 
tinent. Of two and a half millions of the pure aboriginal races, one 
and a half millions are Christians, through the efforts of Roman 
Catholic missionaries. 

The Peruvian family includes the Inca race, the Aymaras, the 
Atacama, and the Changos. Of the Peruvians we shall say more, 
when noticing the Crania Americana. The Inca race, or Quichuas, 
are noted for a very great volume of the chest, which is due to the ele- 
vated regions in which they live, and the consequent extreme expan- 
sion of the air; living at a height of between 7,500 and 15,000 feet 
above the level of the sea, a much greater quantity of such rarefied air 
must be inhaled for the respiratory functions ; to effect this, or in 
consequence of this, the lungs are dilated, and the thorax from infancy 
is abnormally developed ; in the lungs there is a kind of natural 
emphysema. The Aymaras resemble the Incas in physical charac- 
ter, but differ from them entirely in language. It is probable that 
from Tiaguanaco, the most ancient city of South America, and one 
of the great cities of the Aymaras, the religion, the arts, and the civil- 
ization of the Incas originated. The heads of the modern Aymaras 
display no trace of that flattening" of the skull so conspicuous in the 
tombs around the lake of Titicaca and other parts of the Aymara 
country. It is now fully proved that the depressed or elongated form 
of the skulls is owing to the intervention of art ; its origin was prob- 
ably contemporaneous with the reign of the Incas ; it appeared to be 
a mark of honor, as such deformed skulls were found in the largest 
and finest tombs. 

The Atacamas occupy the western declivity of the Peruvian Andes, 
and the Changos spread along the coast of the Pacific ; the latter are 
of a much darker hue, probably depending on their local situation 
by the sea-coast. 

The Antisian branch inhabits the eastern declivity of the Bolivian 
and Peruvian Andes, from 13° to 17° south latitude. Living in 



INTRODUCTION. 39 

damp forests rarely penetrated by the sun's rays, they are almost 
white, and those tribes are the fairest who dwell in the thickest 
woods. 

The Araucanian branch defended the mountains of Chili from the 
Spaniards ; the fishing tribes of Tierra del Fuego are referred by 
D'Orbigny to the Araucanian race. 

Of the Mediterranean group, the Patagonians comprise the tribes 
of this name, and races extending from the Straits of Magellan to 
20° south latitude, including the wandering tribes of the Pampas ; 
they are the nomadic nations of the New World, fierce warriors, 
averse to agriculture and all the arts of civilization. Their com- 
plexion is darker than that of most South Americans ; they have 
long been celebrated for their tall athletic forms ; the stature of the 
most southern is the greatest ; it diminishes as we go northward. 

Thfe agricultural and fishing tribes inhabiting the central prov- 
inces of South America are called by the Spaniards, Chiquitos and 
Moxos. 

The vast region of South America east of the river Paraguay, is 
inhabited by two great families of nations, the Guarani of Paraguay 
and the Tupi of Brazil, and the Caribbees in the countries bordering 
on the Gulf of Mexico. According to D'Orbigny, the following is 
their characteristic description : " Complexion, yellowish ; stature, 
middle ; forehead, not so much arched as in other races ; eyes, 
obliquely placed, and raised at the outer angle." These traits 
approximate them to the nomadic races of High Asia. Spix and 
Von Martius thought the Caribbees very like the Chinese. 

Having thus given the anatomical and external characteristics of 
the various human races, and drawn from them the conclusion that 
all are varieties of a single species, he adds testimony which he 
thinks corroborative from their physiological and psychological char- 
acters. He remarks that the average duration of human life is 
nearly the same in all the races ; at any rate, there is the same ten- 
dency to exist for a definite time, which may be shortened in some 
cases by peculiarities of climate and external circumstances. The 
progress of physical development and the periodical changes of the 
constitution are the same, as also the natural and vital functions ; he 
mentions the temperature of the body, the frequency of the pulse, and 
the periodical changes in the female sex. In all these great regula- 
tions of the animal economy, mankind, white and black, are on the 
same footing by nature. A comparison of the races with respect to 
mental endowments, (and he compares the American and the black 
races with the white,) shows that all have the same inward feelings, 
desires, and aversions ; the same susceptibility of improvement in 



40 INTRODUCTION. 

religion and social condition ; in a word, the same nature. Adding 
together the accumulated testimony from anatomy, physiology, and 
psychology, he says, " We are entitled to draw confidently the con- 
clusion that all human races are of one species and one family." 



Dr. Latham * separates the human species into three primary 
divisions, the Mongolid^, Atlantid^e, and Japetidje: — the Mon- 
golidae inhabiting Asia, Polynesia and America ; their languages 
aptoticf and agglutinate ; their influence on the history of the world 
material rather than moral ; — the Atlantidae inhabiting Africa ; 
their languages with an agglutinate, rarely an amalgamate, in- 
flexion ; their influence on the history of the world inconsiderable ; 
— the Japetidee inhabiting Europe ; their languages with amalga- 
mate inflections, or else anaptotic,J rarely agglutinate, never aptotic ; 
their influence on the history of the world greater than either of the 
others, moral as well as material. 

The MoNGOLiDiE he divides into, 

A. — The Altaic Mongolidae. 

B. — The Dioscurian Mongolidae. 

C. — The Oceanic Mongolidae. 

D. — The Hyperborean Mongolidae. 
E. — The Peninsular Mongolidae. 

F. — The American Mongolidae. 

G. — The Indian Mongolidae. 

A. — The Altaic MongoIidcB, he divides into the Seriform and the 
Turanian stock. 

1. The Seriform stock, of which the chief divisions are the 
Chinese, the Tibetans, the Assamese, the Siamese, the Kambojians, 
the Burmese, the Mou, and numerous unplaced tribes ; their lan- 
guages are generally monosyllabic and aptotic. The Chinese 
language is remarkable, from the fact that written signs represent 
whole words, instead of syllables or single articulate sounds. In 
the wild Seriform tribes we notice erratic agriculture, an exceptional 
form of human industry, contrasting strongly with the method of 
cultivating the soil in China. 

The Chinese civilization he considers the measure of moral 
development of the monosyllabic nations ; while allowing to the 
Chinese several of the most important arts and discoveries of 

* The Natural History of the Varieties of Man, by Robert Gordon 
Latham, M. D., F. R. S. 8vo. London, 1850. 

t Without cases. t Falling back from inflexion. 



INTRODUCTION. 41 

Europe, (as the art of printing-, of paper-money, of the mariner's 
compass, of a certain amount of astronomical knowledge, and even 
of gunpowder,) he doubts the antiquity of this civilization, and still 
more the self-evolution of it. Within the historical period, three 
civilizing influences have been introduced into China. To begin with 
the latest, European and American intercourse has not changed it 
in any essential points. The influence of the early Nestorian 
Christians, between A. D. 600 and 1200, must have been very 
great, from the introduction of Syrian literature, theology and 
science. The Buddhism of India is the earliest civilizing influence. 
The Han dynasty being the extreme date of Chinese history, begin- 
ning B. C. 200, Buddhism must have been introduced since that 
period ; it is generally believed to have been introduced in the first 
century after Christ. He thus limits the growth of Chinese civiliza- 
tion to the last eighteen hundred years, believing " that whatever is 
older than their religion is reasonable tradition for a limited period, 
(say a century,) and unreasonable tradition beyond it." 

2. The Turanian stock, of which the divisions are the Mongo- 
lians, the Tungusians, the Turks, and the Ugrians, extending from 
Kamtskatka to Norway, and from the Arctic Ocean to the frontiers of 
Tibet and Persia. Though there are here some physical changes, there 
are also greater changes in the languages, from those of a monosyl- 
labic and aptotic type to those polysyllabic and anaptotic ; but as 
we know what modifies form, and what modifies language, we 
may readily understand that physical and philological changes may 
go on at different rates. 

An interesting branch of the Ugrian division of the Turanian 
stock is the Magyar, or Hungarians, who migrated from the 
country of the Baslekirs, about A. D. 900. Those who would con- 
nect the Hungarians with the Huns are misled by the similarity of 
the name, for no facts are more undeniable than that the Magyars 
are of Ugrian and the Huns of Turkish descent. The Magyars are 
the only members of the Ugrians who have made a permanent con- 
quest, within the historical period, over any portion of the Japetidce. 

B. — Dioscurian MongolidcB, so called from the ancient sea-port 
Dioscurias ; the term Caucasian would have been more appro- 
priate, but it has already been misapplied in another division, the 
Japetidae. The principal divisions are the Georgians, the Lesgians, 
the Iron, and the Circassians. 

Dr. Latham differs from the long established division of man- 
kind by placing the Caucasians, who have been heretofore consid- 
ered as a preeminently European type, among the Mongolidse. The 
anatomical reason for making the Circassians and Georgians, so 
4* 



42 INTRODUCTION. 

called, Caucasians, was a single fact : — Blumenbach had a solitary 
Georgian skull, which happened to be the finest in his collection, 
that of a Greek being the next ; hence it was taken as the type of 
the skull of the higher divisions of mankind, and gave rise to the 
term Caucasian. " Never has a single head done more harm to 
science than was done in the way of posthumous mischief, by the 
head of this well-shaped female from Georgia ;" this is the amount 
of fact. Similar attempts have been made to connect the Dioscurian 
languages with the Indo-European tongues ; in 1845, Dr. Latham 
announced before the British Association, from the comparison of the 
words only, " that the closest philological afiinity of the Dioscurian 
languages was with the aptotic ones ;" and soon after, Mr. Norriss, 
of the Asiatic Society, expressed the same opinion, on grammatical 
grounds. As to the symmetry of shape and delicacy of complexion 
of the Georgians and Circassians, so different from the Mongolian, 
the reader is reminded of the climatologic condition of the Caucasus ; 
temperate, wooded, mountainous, and near the sea, — the very 
reverse of the Mongol areas. "It is only amongst the chiefs 
where the personal beauty of the male population is at all remark- 
able ; the tillers of the soil are, comparatively speaking, coarse and 
unshapely." 

C. — Oceanic MongolidiE, divided into the Amphinesian* and 
Kelaenonesianf slocks. 

The ocean being a medium of communication between races only 
in proportion to the skill, experience and courage to use it, all 
a priori generalizations on it, as an element of ethnographical disper- 
sion, must be unscientific. With a few exceptions, every inhabited 
spot of land in the Indian and Pacific Oceans is inhabited by tribes 
of the same race, and that race Oceanic; with the exception of the 
Peninsula of Malacca, it is not only evenjwhere in the islands, but 
nowhere on the continent. In an ethnographical distribution by 
ivater, the later date we assign to it the more explicable are the phe- 
nomena, from the more advanced state of navigation favoring the 
dispersion ; while, in an extension by land, the earlier the migration 
takes place, the less is the resistance of surrounding nations. 

1. The Amphinesian stock consists of two branches, the Proto- 
nesian, and the Polynesian, 

The Protonesian branch occupies the Malayan Peninsula, 
Sumatra, Java, Timor, Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas, the Philip- 
pines, &c. With respect to the Malayan Peninsula, the most 
important fact is its being the only continental seat of any Malay 

* Amphi, around, and nesos, island. t Kelainos, black. 



INTKODUCTION. 43 

nation, which suggests the idea of its being the original country of 
the many widely dispersed Malay tribes. 

Of all the tribes of the Old World, the Oceanic stock have 
been the most extensively accused of cannibalism ; not as a mark 
of honor, nor to gratify revenge, but for purposes of food. 

Among the singular customs of the Island of Celebes, women are 
eligible to the highest offices of the state ; so that, at the present 
moment, four out of six of the hereditary rajahs are females. 
Among the Buges, some men dress like women, and some women 
like men, for their whole lives, devoting themselves to the occupa- 
tions of their adopted sex. 

The Polynesian branch inhabits the islands from the Pelews to 
Easter Island, west and east, and from the Mariannes to the Sand- 
wich Islands ; their aliment is preeminently vegetable ; they are 
distinguished by the little or no use of the bow and arrow from the 
Kelaenonesians. To the inhabitants of the Pelew, Caroline, 
Marianne, and Tarawan groups, he gives the name of Micronesians. 

The population of the Sandwich Islands is exceedingly mixed ; 
no area is at once so European and so Polynesian. The Sandwich 
Islanders are themselves emigrants, and " are found at the coast of 
America opposite, thus giving admixture to the Californian and 
Oregon Indians. They do the same in South America, on the 
coast of Peru and Ecuador;" thus giving rise to the imperfectly 
studied union of the American and Oceanic races. 

2. The Kelaenonesian stock is divided into three branches, the 
Papua, the Australian, and the Tasmanian. 

The Papua branch is found in New Guinea, New Hebrides, and 
the neighboring islands, and in the Fiji archipelago. 

In the Australian branch the lowest form of humanity has been 
sought for, though it is probable that there has been considerable 
over-statement on the subject. 

The Tasmanian branch inhabits Van Diemen's Land. 

D. — Hyperborean Mongolida belong to Siberia, on the coasts 
of the Arctic Ocean, and the courses of Yenisey and Kolwyma 
rivers. They are divided into Samoieds, Yeniseians, and Yukahiri. 
The Samoieds resemble very nearly the Greenlanders in their phys- 
ical appearance. This section probably will be found to be a 
subdivision either of the Turanian or the Peninsular Mongolidae. 

E. — Peninsular Mongolidce comprise tribes separated from each 
other, both geographically and ethnologically ; the principal divis- 
ions are the Koreans, Japanese, Kamtskadales, and others, inhabit- 
ing the islands and peninsulas of north-eastern Asia ; their lan- 
guages are agglutinate, and, in some cases, excessively polysyllabic 



44 INTRODUCTION. 

They are connected by common physical and social conditions ; 
they lie within a few degrees of the same longitude ; and their lan- 
guages have a general glossarial connection with each other, and 
with the American languages, which is sufficient reason for placing 
them in a separate division. 

*' The true Kamtskadales are a nearly extinct race. Amongst the 
causes of their rapid diminution, a kind of death, rare amongst sav- 
age nations, is enumerated — suicide." 

F. — American MongolidiB, comprising the Esquimaux and the 
American Indians. Over this vast area, whenever the languages 
differ from, or agree with, each other, they differ or agree in a man- 
ner to which Asia has furnished no parallel. 

The Esquimau is the only family common to the Old and the 
New World, and the Esquimau localities are the only ones where 
the two continents approach each other very nearly ; so that it would 
seem easy to decide in what manner America was peopled. Our 
choice must be between the doctrine that derives the American na- 
tions " from one or more separate pairs of progenitors, and the doc- 
trine that either Behring's Straits, or the line of Islands between 
Kamtskatka and the Peninsula of Aliaska, was the highway between 
the two worlds — from Asia to America, or vice versa ;^^ as it does 
not necessarily follow that the race must have arisen in Asia, though 
there are valid reasons for this opinion. Physically, the Esquimau 
is a Mongol and an Asiatic ; philologically, he is an American. The 
Esquimaux of the Atlantic coast are easily distinguished from the 
American aborigines to the south and west of them, in appearance, 
manners, and language ; while the Esquimaux of the Pacific coast, 
in Russian America, pass gradually into the proper Indians in the 
same respects. 

The great differences between the American Indians, as a body, 
and the tribes of the Old World would naturally lead to an opinion 
in favor of a general and fundamental unity among the several sec- 
tions of them; "the Brazilian and the Mohawk equally agreed in 
disagreeing with the Laplander, or Negro ; and this common differ- 
ence was enough to bring them within the same class." The lan- 
guages of the American nations differ remarkably from each other ; 
but, as Yater has indicated, " the discrepancy extends to words or 
roots only, the general internal or grammatical structure being the 
same for all ;" while they differ glossarially, they agree grammati- 
cally, — a philological paradox. The likeness in the granmnar has 
generally been considered of more weight than the difference in the 
words, so that the evidence of language is in favor of the unity of 
all the American nations, including the Esquimaux. 



INTRODUCTION. 45 

Some have been disposed to separate the Esquimaux, and the 
Peruvians and Mexicans, from the other Americans — the former 
on account of an inferior, the latter on account of a superior " civil- 
izational development," and maintained in consequence, that the 
American stock is not fundamentally one. But the Esquimau civil- 
ization is not lower than that of the other Americans, it is only 
different, as would be expected from their Arctic habitat, their fish- 
ing habits, and their Fauna and Flora. As to physical characters, 
they are taller than half of the South American tribes ; they are as 
dark as most of the American races, only a few typical nations 
being copper-colored ; their skulls approach the " brakhy-kephalic " 
character of the American ; and, finally, their language is Amer- 
ican in grammatical structure, and even in w^ords. 

The Peruvio-Mexican civilization has been over-estimated ; the 
phenomena of their social and political condition should not be com- 
pared with European feudalism and chivalry, but rather with " their 
analogues, the probationary tortures of tribes like the Mandans, and 
the constitution of such an empire as Powhattan's in Virginia ;" if 
we compare this empire of Powhattan with the kingdom of Monte- 
zuma, we shall find the difference of civilization to be in degree, and 
not in kind. The differences between the Peruvian and the Amer- 
ican skull are artificially produced, by flattening in front, behind, or 
laterally, as the case may be. 

While thus advocating the unity of the American nations, one 
among another, he omits the consideration of their unity with nations 
of the Old World. He merely says, " I know reasons valid enough 
and numerous enough to have made the notion of the New World 
being the oldest of the two a paradox. Nevertheless, I know no 
absolutely conclusive ones." 

G. — The Indian Mongolidce comprise the inhabitants of Hindos- 
tan, (in part,) Cashmere, Ceylon, the Maldives and Laccadives, and 
part of Beloochistan ; they have numerous relations with the Jape- 
tidae. 

The Atlantida3 he divides into — 

A. — The Negro Atlantidas. 

B. — The Kaffre Atlantidae. 

C. — The Hottentot Atlantidae. 

D. — The Nilotic Atlantidae. 

E. — Amazirgh Atlantidae. 

F. — The Egyptian Atlantidae. 

G. — The Semitic Atlantidae. 

It is necessary to remember the difference between the Negro and 
the African ; the true Negro area, occupied by men of black skin, 



46 INTRODUCTION. 

thick lips, flat nose, and woolly hair, being an exceedingly small 
part of the African continent. 

A. — The Negro AtlantidxB are distributed on the low lands, sea- 
coasts, deltas, and courses of the rivers Senegal, Gambia, Niger, 
and Upper Nile, nearly limited to the tropic of Cancer. The depart- 
ure from the true Negro features is the greatest on the high or table 
lands. 

B. — The Kaffre AtlantidcB. inhabit Western, Central (?), and 
Eastern Africa, from the north of the Equator to the south of the 
Tropic of Capricorn. Their language has two remarkable peculi- 
arities which seem to separate it from other African tongues; viz., 
the system of prefixing to every noun a syllable without any sepa- 
rate meaning, and alliterational concord, which changes the initial 
sound of a secondary word into that of the primary one. 

C. — The Hottentot AtlantidxB have " a better claim to be considered 
as forming a second species of the genus Homo than any other sec- 
tion of mankind." Their language contains two inarticulate ele- 
ments, viz., A, (like other tongues,) and a peculiar and characteris- 
tic click. 

D. — The Nilotic AtlantidcB are principally the Gallas, Agows, 
and Nubians ; through the Nubian is traced the transition from the 
Egyptian to the Eastern Negro. 

E. — The AmazirgJi AtlantidcB (or Berbers) comprise the Sievans, 
the Cabyles of the Atlas range, Tuaricks of the Sahara, and the 
Guanches of the Canaries, These were probably the subjects of 
Massinissa, Juba, and Jugurtha. 

F. — The ^Egyptian AtlantidcB comprise the Old Egyptians, the 
subjecis of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies ; and the modern Copts, 
in the rare cases where they are unmixed : the present dominant 
population being Arab. 

G. — Semitic AtlantidcB. Connection with the Semitic is by no 
means synonymous with separation from the African stock ; we may 
pass naturally from the Copts to the Semitic tribes of Abyssinia, 
Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, &c., including Syrians, 
Assyrians, Babylonians, Phcenicians, Hebrews, Arabs, Ethio- 
pians, &c. 

The Syrian influence on civilization has been undervalued ; 
through the Syrians, Armenia and Arabia received the knowledge of 
Greece, and more important still has been the influence of the pro- 
pagandism of the Nestorian Christians in Central and Eastern Asia. 
The Babylonians were among the first, if not the first, builders of 
cities and founders of empires ; they also made the first application 
of weights and measures. The achievement of alphabetic writing 



INTKODUCTION. 47 

is apparently the work of the Phoenicians. The Arabs have ever 
been celebrated for their zeal in the diffusion of knowledge, though 
the amount of originality among them is by no means ascertained. 

He thinks all the alphabets that have ever been used are referable 
to a single prototype, and that Semitic. 

In order to account for the difference of tribes under the same lat- 
itude, he lays stress upon the accumulation of climatologic influ- 
ences, and the angle of migration ; which he illustrates by supposed 
migrations through a single zone, and through many rapidly passed 
zones ; in the former case the climatologic influences would be 
accumulated much more than in the latter. 

The Japetidae he divides into — 

A. — Occidental Japetidae. 

B. — Indo-Germanic Japetidae. 

The first consists of the Celts and their branches. The second 
falls into two classes, the European, and the Iranian Indo-Germans ; 
the former including the Gothic Sarmatian, and Mediterranean na- 
tions ; the latter, the populations of Kurdistan, Persia, Beloochistan, 
Affghanistan, and Kafferistan, — tribes descended from the speakers 
of the Sanscrit languages (in the present state of our inquiry, dead 
languages) . 



CuviER divides man into three stocks, Caucasian, Mongole or 
Altaic, and Negro ; he refers the American to the Mongolian 
stock. 

Fischer divides man into Homo Japeticus ; H. Neptunianus ; H. 
Scythicus (Mongols) ; H. Americanus (Patagonians) ; H. Columbi- 
cus (Americans) ; H. Ethiopicus ; and H. Polynesius. 

Lesson divides man into the White Race ; Dusky Race, including 
Hindoos, Caffrarians, Papuans, and Australians ; Orange-colored 
Race, the Malay ; Yellow Race, the Mongolian, Oceanic and South 
American ; Red Race, the Caribs, and North Americans ; and the 
Black Race. 

DuMERiL proposes the divisions, Caucasian, Hyperborean, Mon- 
gole, American, Malay, and Ethiopian. 

YiREY divides man into two species : the first, with facial angle of 
85° to 90°, including the white race, (Caucasian,) the yellow race, 
(Mongolian,) and the copper-colored race (American) ; the second^ 
with facial angle 75° to 82°, including the dark brown race, (Malay,) 
the black race, and the lackish race (Hottentots and Papuas). 

Desmoulins' sections are Celto-Scyth- Arabs ; Mongoles ; Ethio- 



48 INTRODUCTION. 

plans ; Euro- Africans ; Austro- Africans ; Malays ; Papuas ; Negro 
Oceanians ; Australasians ; Columbians ; and Americans. 

BoRY DE St. Vincent makes fifteen divisions — races with straight 
hair, of the Old World; viz., Homo Japeticus ; * H. Arabicus ; 
H. Indicus ; H. Scythicus (Tartars) ; H. Sinicus (Chinese) ; H. 
Hyperboreus ; H. Neptunianus ; H. Australasicus ; — in the New 
World, H. Columbicus (North Americans) ; H. Americanus (South 
Americans) ; H. Patagonicus — negro races ; H. ^thiopicus ; H. 
CafFer ; H. Melavinus (in Madagascar, Fiji Islands, Van Diemen's 
land) ; and H. Hottentottus. 

Mr. Martin f gives a sketch of the principal divisions of mankind, 
according to various naturalists, which is quite natural and interest- 
ing. 

Mr. Martin divides mankind into Jive stocks, as follows : 

1. Japetic Stock ; including the European branch, or the Celtic, 
Pelasgic, Teutonic and Sclavonic nations; — the Asiatic hrdiiich, or 
the Tartaric, Caucasic, Semitic (Arabs, Jews, &c.), and Sanscritic 
or Hindoo nations ; and the African branch, or the Mizraimic (ancient 
Egyptians, Abyssinians, Berbers, and Guanches) nations. 

2. Neptunian Stock, including the Malays proper, and the Poly- 
nesians ; (including, perhaps, among the last, the founders of the 
Peruvian and Mexican Empires). 

3. MoNGOLE Stock, including Mongoles and Hyperboreans. 

4. Prognathous Stock, including the Afro-Negro, Hottentot, 
Papuan, and Alfourou branches. 

5. Occidental Stock, including Columbians (North American 
Indians), South Americans, and Patagonians. 



Dr. Pickering % observes, in his first chapter, that, in the United 
States, three races of men are admitted to exist, and the same three 
races " have been considered, by eminent naturalists, (who, however, 
have not travelled,) to comprise all the varieties of the human fam- 
ily." He continues, " I have seen in all eleven races of men ; and 

* Not in allusion to Japhet, the son of Noah, but to Japetus (audax 
Japeti genus, Horace), whom the ancients regarded as the progenitor of 
the race inhabiting the western regions of the world, 

t Physical History of Man and Monkeys : by W. C. L. Martin, F. L. S. 
London, 1811. 

t The Races of Man, and their Geographical Distribution : by Charles 
Pickering, M. D. Boston, 184S. [U. S. Exploring Expedition.] 



INTRODUCTION. 49 

though I am hardly prepared to fix a positive limit to their number, 
I confess, after having visited so many different parts of the globe, 
that I am at a loss where to look for others." He enumerates 
them in the order of their complexion, beginning with the lightest. 

A. — White. Including 1. Arabian; with nose prominent, lips 
thin, beard abundant, and hair straight and flowing. 2. Abyssinian; 
with a complexion hardly becoming florid, nose prominent, and hair 
crisped. 

B. — Brown. Including, 3. Mongolian; beardless, with per- 
fectly straight and very long hair. 4. Hottentot, with Negro 
features, and close woolly hair, and stature diminutive. 5. Malay ; 
features not prominent in the profile ; complexion darker than in 
preceding races, and hair straight and flowing. 

C. — Blackish-Brown. Including, Q. Papuan; with features 
not prominent in the profile, the beard abundant, skin harsh to the 
touch, and the hair crisped or frizzled. 7. Negrillo ; apparently 
beardless ; stature diminutive, features approaching those of the 
Negro, and the hair woolly. 8. Indian or Telingan; with feat- 
ures approaching those of the Arabian, and the hair straight and 
flowing. 9. Ethiopian; with complexion and features intermediate 
between those of the Telingan and Negro, and the hair crisped. 

D. — Black. — Including, 10. Australian ; with Negro features, 
but with straight or flowing hair. 11. Negro ; with close woolly, 
hair, nose much flattened, and lips very thick. 

Maritime habits would separate the Malay, Negrillo, and Papuan, 
or the three island races, from the eight continental races. Six of 
the races may be considered Asiatic, and four African ; while the 
eleventh, or white race, is common to both hemispheres. All races 
exist independent of climate. Three well marked divisions of the 
soil correspond with desert, pastoral, and agricultural communities. 
" It is a mistake to suppose, with many, that pastoral or nomadic life 
is a stage in the progressive improvement of society; the condition 
is inscribed on the face of nature." 

In the Mongolian race, he thinks, the occurrence of a feminine 
aspect in both sexes, rendering it difiicult to distinguish men from 
women, is characteristic. He was not able to make much use of 
the oblique eye as a distinctive character, nor the ' ' alleged absence 
of a projecting inner angle to the lids." According to him, the 
Mongolian race inhabits " about one half of Asia, and, with a slight 
exception, all aboriginal America, or more than two fifths of the 
land-surface of the globe." 

According to Mr. Coan, the stature of the southern Patagonians 
" is nothing unusual, but it is exaggerated by their peculiar mode 
5 



60 INTRODUCTION. 

of dress." The Fuegians, though living so near the Antarctic 
Circle, are entirely destitute of clothing, showing the absence of the 
severe winters of the north. " Indeed, we afterwards found that 
in the southern hemisphere vegetation is nowhere checked by a 
season of cold ; but that, in many respects, a tropical climate may 
be said to extend to the Antarctic snows." The dog is found among 
the natives of the extreme point of South America ; slings are used 
by the Fuegians, but not by the North American Indians. 

Among the North-west watermen, the air of quietness was very 
striking ; they appeared on good terms wdth the birds and beasts, 
and as if forming with them a part of the animal creation ; in 
accordance with an idea entertained, " that the Mongolian has pecu- 
liar qualifications for reclaiming or reducing animals to the domestic 
state." The dog is used by them as a beast of burden. The 
Chinooks are considerably superior to the hunting tribes of North 
America in various arts and ingenious devices. The skulls of the 
Chinooks are flattened in infancy ; but, as they grow up, the skull 
resumes its natural shape to such an extent as to show very little 
trace of the previous deformity, except an unusual breadth of 
the face. Slavery exists among the Chinooks, and is probably 
connected with the first peopling of the American continent. He 
thinks the fate of the Chinooks may possibly be different from the 
rest of the continental tribes, from " the greater density of a spirited 
population, and the scanty proportion of agricultural territory," and 
that " they can only give place to a maritime people like them- 
selves." 

Speaking of a bas-relief from Palenque, he says, " It is eminently 
characteristic of the Mongolian, and seems decisive as to the physical 
race of the people who reared the remarkable ancient structures dis- 
covered in that part of America." 

The Aborigines of the United States seemed to him physically 
identical with their brethren west of the Rocky Mountains ; their 
stature is higher, however, and not inferior to Europeans. He 
thinks all belong to the Mongolian race. Of the Chinese, he says, 
*'I repeatedly selected individuals, who, if transported in a difl!erent 
dress into the American forest, might, I thought, have deceived the 
most experienced eye." At Singapore, the Feejean captive, Vein- 
dovi, saw, for the first time, some Chinese, and " at once identified 
them with his old acquaintances, the tribes of North-west America." 
Of the Mongolian races, the Aboriginal American has superior 
powers of endurance ; the Chinese excel in persevering industry 
and frugality ; these qualifications promise to have an important 
bearing on the future destiny of the race. 



INTRODUCTION. 51 

The Malay race is the most widely scattered ; it exhibits greater 
variety in its institutions and social condition than all other races 
combined ; and it is truly a maritime race. A marked peculiarity 
is the elevated occiput, which gives to the face, seen in front, a 
broader appearance than in Europeans ; there is a tendency also to 
elongation of the upper maxilla. There is a great variety of 
stature among them : some of the Polynesians (as the Taheitians) 
are the largest of mankind, while the East Indian tribes are of 
small stature, — this may depend on food, though in both it is prin- 
cipally vegetable ; the former (where grain is almost unknown) live 
on farinaceous roots and fruits, the latter live almost entirely on rice. 

Speaking of the beautiful submarine creation of the coral islands, 
he says it was exclusively of animal life, even marine vegetables 
being nearly wanting. The mineral kingdom was also absent ; noth- 
ing but immense masses of the debris of animals. Myriads of 
sea-birds and the absence of cocoa-palms announced uninhabited 
islands ; so, on landing, did the absence of the house-fly, and of the 
Morinda, though the soil is often covered with the Pandanus, which 
spreads without human aid. The vegetable productions of these 
islands are limited to about thirty species, of remarkable uniformity 
over every geographical distance. 

Among the Polynesian customs is the salute by rubbing noses 
together. He calls the Californians, Mexicans and West Indians, 
Malay Americans; a single glance satisfied him of their Malay 
affinity. At the Bay of San Francisco it was at first not easy to 
distinguish native Polynesians from the half-civilized Californians. 
The hair, however, is a test, that of the former being waved and 
inclined to curl, while that of the latter is invariably straight. The 
Californians have not the custom of scalping, nor do they use the 
tomahawk. The presence of two aboriginal races in America 
recalls certain historical coincidences. The Toltecs, the predeces- 
sors of the Aztecs in Mexico, were acquainted with agriculture and 
manufactures. Now, such cultivation could not have been derived 
from the northern Mongolian population, who in their parent coun- 
tries were by climate prevented from being agriculturists. If, then, 
this art was introduced at all from abroad, it must have come by a 
southern route, and, to all appearance, through the Malay race. 
This is not incompatible with an ancient tradition, attributing 
*' the origin of their civilization to a man having a long beard ;" he 
could not have been a Mongolian ; he might have been a Malay. 
*' If, however, any actual remnant of the Malay race exists in the 
eastern part of North America, it is probably to be looked for among 



52 INTRODUCTION. 

the Chippewas and the Cherokees." He gives many examples of 
Malay analogies. He refers the Japanese to the Malay race. 

The Australian lias the complexion and features of the Negro, 
but hair instead of wool ; the forehead does not recede so much, and 
often an unusually sunken eye gives it rather the appearance of pro- 
jecting ; the eyes, though small, are uncommonly piercing. He saw 
about thirty, some of whom were very ugly, and others decidedly 
fine-looking. He did not notice the usually described slenderness of 
limb ; their forms were generally better than those of the Negroes. 
He refers to an Australian as the finest model of human proportions 
he had ever seen. The hair was usually undulating, and even curl- 
ing in ringlets. 

The Australians absolutely reject all the innovations of civiliza- 
tion ; they are strictly in the " hunter state ;" they appear as anoma- 
lous as the inferior animals with which they are associated. If the 
wild Australian dog be a peculiar species, as there is reason to 
believe, and never the companion of man, these people are absolutely 
without domestic animals ; " a circumstance perhaps fairly unique." 

The Papuan race are robust blacks, inhabiting, among others, the 
Feejee Islands. They differ from the rest of mankind in the hardness 
or harshness of the skin. The hair is in great quantity, naturally 
frizzled and wiry ; when dressed, its thickness will protect against 
a heavy blow ; it actually incommodes the wearer when lying down, 
and renders necessary a wooden neck-pillow. The beard exceeds in 
quantity that of all except the White races. The features resemble 
the Negro, but the face is longer ; in stature they exceed the White 
race. The favorite color among the Feejeans is vermilion-red ; 
among the Malays it is yellow. The former have not the excessive 
fondness for flowers manifested by the Polynesians ; they rarely anoint 
themselves with oil ; they salute by touching noses instead of lips. 
Among the Feejeans there exists a general system of parricide ; few 
persons die a natural death ; when they have passed the prime of 
life, and are unfit for the service of the state, the son makes use of 
his privilege and takes the life of his parent. This strange custom, 
apparently so inhuman, is a sacrifice in favor of the children, — a kind 
of savage virtue in a land where the means of subsistence are limited. 
Cannibalism is of daily occurrence, and is regarded in the light of a 
refinement. 

The Negrillo race occupies the New Hebrides, the interior of 
New Guinea, Luzon, &c. It differs from the Papuan in its diminu- 
tive stature, general absence of beard, the inclined profile, and the 
exaggerated Negro features ; the hair is less knotty than that of the 
Negro, and more woolly than that of the Papuan. 



INTRODUCTION. 53 

The Telingan comprises the natives of Eastern and Western Hin- 

dostan and Madagascar. 

The Negro race is the darkest of all, and is rivalled only by the 
Hottentot in the close woolly texture of the hair. The absence of 
rigidity and of a divided apex of the cartilage of the nose is common 
to this and the Malay, and probably other races. In Albinos, when 
the skin resembles that of Europeans, the hair resembles " a white 
fleece." The excellence of the Negro ear for music is proverbial ; 
much of our popular music, which has been supposed to be of Negro 
origin, may probably be traced to a more distant and ancient source. 

In Egypt, Negroes are principally confined to Cairo and Alex- 
andria, and are generally house-servants ; they do not engage in the 
labors of agriculture, and they are not so represented on the ancient 
monuments. Negroes are figured principally in connexion with the 
military campaigns of the Eighteenth Dynasty. One of this dynasty 
(Thouthmosis IV.) probably had a negress for his queen. He does 
not remember seeing Negroes represented on the anterior monuments, 
nor indeed on those of much later date. He says, " I am not aware 
of any fact contravening the assumption that Negro slaver)'^ may have 
been of modern origin ; and the race even seems to have been very 
little known to the ancient Greeks and Romans." The Soahili are a 
mixed race of Negroes and Whites, living at Zanzibar and other 
localities ; in the same island is also a mixed race of Negroes and 
Malays. Among the people of Eastern Africa he could not hear of 
any pastoral Negroes, nor of Ethiopian cultivators- The KaiFers 
"belong physically to the Negro race." 

The Ethiopian i-ace is intermediate between the Telingan and 
Negro in personal appearance and in complexion. The hair is 
crisped, but fine, never wiry ; the skin is soft, and the features 
European-like. It occupies the hottest countries of Africa ; most of 
the tribes are pastoral, wandering, some of them in the recesses of 
the Great Desert. The Nubians of the Nile, and some tribes bor- 
dering on Abyssinia, lead an agricultural life. 

The Ethiopian race seems to have furnished the originals for the 
ancient monuments of Egypt, as late as the end of the Eighteenth 
dynasty ; their manner of braiding and plaiting the hair is that 
which prevails in the mummies. Most of the monarchs of this 
dynasty were certainly of the White race, and subsequent to, if not 
before this period, the Egyptians were regarded as a nation of the 
White race ; at the same time, there is abundant evidence that some 
of the Egyptian Pharaohs were physically Ethiopians. The Somali, 
Denkali, Galla, and M'Kuafi belong to the Ethiopian race. 

The Hottentot differs in physical race from the Negro, being of 
5* 



54 



INTRODUCTION. 



light complexion and diminutive stature. The area of the Hottentot 
race has been generally limited to a small locality at the south ; it is 
probable that it extends a considerable distance towards the interior 
of the continent. Unlike the KafFers, the Hottentots readily adopt 
the habits of civilization, and are useful assistants to the colonists. 
Of the Bosjesmans of the frontier, it is quoted, "They live among 
rocks and woods ; have a keen, vivid eye, always on the alert ; will 
spring from rock to rock, like the antelope ; sleep in nests which 
they form in the bushes, and seldom pass two nights in the same 
place ; supporting themselves by robbery, or by catching wild ani- 
mals, as reptiles and insects." 

The Abyssinian race may be said to have European features, with 
crisped hair and light complexion. Mr. Rochon speaks of them as 
" a fine set of people, men absolutely such as ourselves, and capable 
of doing anything that we can do." Mr. Isenberg says, " Under the 
same advantages, Abyssinia might rise to an equality with a Euro- 
pean nation." This is the third race, "which will enter into the 
question of the primitive Egyptians;" the profile corresponds well 
with that of the monumental Egyptian ; though Mr. Gliddon has 
pointed out the true Abyssinian separately and distinctly figured on 
the monuments. 

He divides the White race into two branches, diflfering as well 
geographically as in institutions and habits; viz., the European 
and the Oriental ; the former rules the sea by its ships, as the latter 
rules the land by its caravans. He was surprised at hearing from 
the lips of Orientals words of ancient and modern European lan- 
guages, " until at last the whole class of these languages seemed as 
if merely recom posed from fragments of Arabic and Sanscrit ; and if 
any European words can be traced to a diflferent source, they at least 
remain to be pointed out." 

Assuming the population of the globe to be 900,000,000, the 
races include the following numbers : 



The White, . 
The Mongolian, 
The Malayan, . 
The Telingan, . 
The Negro, 
The Ethiopian, 



350,000,000 i The Abyssinian, . 3,000,000 



300,000,000 

120,000,000 

60,000,000 

55,000,000 

5,000,000 



The Papuan, 
The Negrillo, . 
The Australian, 
The Hottentot, 



3,000,000 

3,000,000 

500,000 

500,000 



Though languages indicate national affiliation, their actual dis- 
tribution is independent in a great degree of physical race ; and much 
confusion has arisen among writers from neglecting the means of 



INTRODUCTION. ^ 55 

extension or imparting of languages. The adoption of a language 
is "very much a matter of convenience, depending often on the 
numerical majority." On the supposition, for instance, that Poly- 
nesians had reached the American shores, it does not follow that we 
ought to find traces of their language. On the contrary, it does not 
follow that races speaking the same language are in any way con- 
nected in their origin, as the Whites and Blacks of the United States. 
He concludes this chapter thus : "In the organic world, each new 
field requires a new creation ; each change in circumstances, going 
beyond the constit\]tion of a plant or animal, is met by a new adapta- 
tion, until the universe is full ; while, ^ong the immense variety of 
created beings, two kinds are hardly found fulfilling the same pre- 
cise purpose. Some analogy may possibly exist in the human fam- 
ily ; and it may even be questioned whether any one of the races, 
existing singly, would, up to the present day, have extended itself 
over the whole surface of the globe." 

It is evident that the manners, arts, and attainments of the Poly- 
nesians are not of independent growth, nor are they the remnants of 
a decayed higher civilization. If we look to the East Indies, their 
supposed origin, we find no resemblance. If man has had a central 
origin, and has gradually spread with his inventions and knowledge, 
we ought to find his history inscribed on the globe itself; " each new 
revolution obliterating more or less of the preceding, his primitive 
condition should be found at the furthest remove from the geo- 
graphic centre." If we " could go back into the early history of the 
East Indies, we might find there a condition of society approximating 
to that of tiie Polynesian Islanders." Customs, long obsolete in the 
place of their origin, may continue a long time in remote situations. 

Between the east coast of Africa and the coast of America, there 
are five distinct centres of maritime intercourse, which bring into 
connexion this immense tract of ocean. From Arabia to Hindostan the 
navigation is performed by Arab " dows" ; from Hindostan to the 
East Indies, the Bay of Bengal is navigated by the Telingans and 
Maldive Islanders ; the East Indians extend their commercial enter- 
prises from Asia to the northern part of Australia ; the main Pacific 
has two centres of communication with the East Indies, through the 
Micronesian groups, and the Papuan archipelago, though the former 
is the main one ; this navigation is carried on by Japanese vessels 
and by the large double canoes of the Society and Tonga Islands ; the 
northern Pacific to America has been passed by these same Japanese 
vessels and Polynesian canoes ; both would naturally and almost 
necessarily reach the northern extreme of California, precisely the 
place where we find a second physical race ; this course would be 



56 INTRODUCTION. • 

brought about by the ocean currents and the prevailing winds. 
Within a few years a Japanese vessel was fallen in with by a whaler 
in the North Pacific ; another has been wrecked on the Sandwich 
Islands ; and, still more in point, a third has actually drifted to the 
American coast near the mouth of the Columbia river. Finally, 
between Asia and North-west America, there is almost a continuous 
chain of islands, inhabited by the same population, so that it is 
impossible to say where America begins, or where Asia ends. 

He considers table-lands as the natural birth-places of civilization. 
He compares, with this view, the table-lands of Mexico and Peru 
with the American forests^ and their corresponding civilization. 
America contains two of these natural centres ; the table-land of 
Thibet is a third ; all in possession of the Mongolian race. If we 
look for a fourth, we shall find it only in Abyssinia. 

Assuming that man has been placed on the earth subject to the 
same laws as the rest of creation, — and, finding that the species of 
animals have in no case been modified by climate, or external cir- 
cumstances in the various regions allotted to each, but have been 
originally fitted for their natural localities, — he argues that man, born 
without natural clothing, does not belong to the cold or variable 
climates ; he must have originated "in a region of perpetual sum- 
mer, where the unprotected skin bears without suffering the slight 
fluctuations of temperature;" in other words, he is "essentially a 
production of the Tropics." He thinks there is " no middle ground, 
between the admission of eleven distinct species in the human family, 
and the reduction to one." If the latter opinion be adopted, it implies 
a central origin, and that origin is probably the African Continent. 

Speaking of the introduction of plants into America, he thinks 
that its agriculture may not be of spontaneous growth ; and many of 
the objects of cultivation have been introduced especially from Japan 
and the Polynesian islands; many of the American species have not 
been met with elsewhere, and are doubtless indigenous. 

The foreign animals and plants of the Pacific Islands were invari- 
ably derived from the West. Three of our domestic animals, the 
pig, the dog, and the domestic fowl, were known throughout tropical 
Polynesia before the visits of Europeans. They have also their 
indigenous animals and plants. He believes that the Indian caves 
of Budha were constructed by the White race. 



There has been a singular diversity of opinion in regard to the 
physical characteristics of the ancient JEgyptians ; the point of prin- 
cipal interest is whether they were Caucasians or Negroes. 



INTRODUCTION. 57 

We may here give an abstract of Dr. Morton's* interesting obser- 
vations. 

Dr. Morton refers the skulls of Egyptian mummies to two great 
races, the Caucasian and the Negro, the number of the former being 
vastly the greatest. The Caucasian heads he refers to three types, 
the Pelasgic, the finest conformation ; the Semitic, as seen in the 
Hebrews, with comparatively receding forehead, long, arched, and 
very prominent nose, marked distance between the eyes, and strong 
development of the whole facial structure; and the Egyptian, having 
a narrower and more receding forehead than the Pelasgic, with a 
more prominent face ; the nose straight or aquiline, the face angular, 
the features often sharp, and the hair uniformly long, soft, and curl- 
ing ; among these, he includes skulls which blend the Egyptian and 
the Pelasgic types. Besides the true Negro type, there are also 
heads of mixed characters, in which the Negro predominates ; he 
calls the latter Negroid. 

Of ninety-eight Egyptian (ancient) crania, forty-nine were Egyp- 
tian, twenty-nine Pelasgic, six Semitic, five mixed, eight Negroid, 
and one Negro ; more than eight tenths belong to the unmixed Cau- 
casian race. The Caucasian heads have a larger internal capacity 
and a greater facial angle than the Negro ; and in the order which 
he at first enumerated the types. 

Allowing for the acquired density from infiltration of bitumen, 
the cranial bones are as thin and light as in Europeans. The hair 
is as fine and curling as in Europeans, " perfectly distinct from the 
woolly texture of the Negro, the frizzled curls of the Mulatto, or the 
lank, straight locks of the Mongolian." Denon pointed out in the 
Egyptian profile the great distance between the nostrils and the teeth ; 
a small and receding chin is also of frequent occurrence. There is 
abundant evidence that the complexion of the Egyptians did not differ 
from that of other Caucasian nations in warm latitudes. While the 
higher classes, protected from the sun, were comparatively fair, the 
lower classes were comparatively dark, and might even be called 
black by the Greeks, in comparison with their own. We find a sim- 
ilar variation among the modern Hindoos. 

The same national physiognomy displayed by the mummies is also 
represented on the monuments, as any one will easily find by turning 
over the pages of Champollion and Rosellini ; viz., an upwardly 
elongated head, with receding forehead, delicate features, prominent 
face, in which a long, straight, or slightly aquiline nose forms a prin- 
cipal feature, the chin short and retracted, the lips rather turned, and 

*Ceania ^gyptiaca ; by Samuel George Morton, M. D. Philadel- 
phia, 1844. 



58 " INTRODUCTION. 

the hair long and flowing. Adopting the Biblical term, he thinks 
the children of Ham, or Mizraimites, (he does not believe that Ham 
was the progenitor of the Negro race,) entered Africa by the isthmus 
of Suez, and were the aboriginal inhabitants of the valley of the 
Nile ; " and that their institutions, however modified by intrusive 
nations in after times, were the offspring of their own minds ;" he 
believes a portion spread themselves over the north of Africa, and 
became the nomadic tribes of Libyans. Dr. Beke reverses the route, 
and thinks the " Cushite descendants of Ham first settled on the 
western side of the Arabian peninsula, crossed thence into Ethiopia, 
and, descending the Nile, became the Egyptians of after times." 

The term Ethiopian has been used very vaguely, to embrace 
Arabs, Hindoos, Austral-Egyptians, and Negroes ; it is properly 
applied to the people who occupied the valley of the Nile from 
Philae to Meroe, including the present nations of Nubians and 
Abyssinians, and the great variety of mixed races resulting from 
Negro proximity. Monumental evidence abundantly shows that the 
Meroites and Ethiopians had no affinity to the Negro race ; the former 
are always represented red like the Egyptians, while the latter has 
also the characteristics of his race. He believes " that the Egyptians 
and monumental Ethiopians were of the same lineage, and probably 
descended from a Libyan tribe." 

The Fellahs are a mixture of the Arab with the old Egyptian 
stock, and are the lineal descendants of, and least removed from, the 
monumental race of any now occupying the valley of the Nile. 

The monuments also prove that the Egyptian race must have been 
modified by Pelasgic, Semitic, Arab, and Hindoo tribes, of the Cau- 
casian family. He regards the Copts as a mixed community derived 
from the Caucasian and Negro. The modern Nubians, he thinks, 
are "descended, not from the possessors of Ethiopia in its flourish- 
ing period, but from the praedial and slave population of the country, 
increased by colonists, and raised into a nation by peculiar circum- 
stances between the third and sixth centuries of the Christian era." 

The monuments give ample evidence of the existence of Negro 
slavery among the Egyptians ; and the vast influx of Negroes must 
have left an impression on their masters, as we see in the ancient 
Negroid heads and the modern Copts, thus also explaining the inci- 
dental elevation of the Negro caste. Comparing the ancient Egyp- 
tian and Negro with their modern representatives, it may be said 
" that the physical or organic characters which distinguish the sev- 
eral races of men are as old as the oldest records of our species." 



INTRODUCTION. 59 

Mr. Van Amringe,* while he admits that all the human family 
sprang- from Adam ; that the whole race, except Noah and his 
family, was destroyed by the deluge ; and that since then the whole 
human family have sprung from three men, — believes, and forcibly 
argues, that there are no less than /owr different species of mankind. 
These arg-uments will be introduced when treating of the diversity 
of the races. 

His species are, 1, The Shemitic species, including the Caucasian 
nations generally ; of strenuous temperament. 2. The Japhetic 
species, including the Mongolian races, Esquimaux, Aztecs and Pe- 
ruvians ; of passive temperament. 3. The Ishmaelitic species, includ- 
ing most of the Tartar and Arabian tribes, and the American nations ; 
of callous temperament. 4. The Canaanitic species, including Ne- 
groes and Australians ; of sluggish temperament. 5. The Esauitic 
species (?), including Malays and Negroes with long hair. 



Dr. Smythj divides the subject into the question of origin, and 
the question of specific unity of man ; the former he determines 
chiefly by the evidence of Scripture ; the latter, only, he makes a 
question for scientific observation. He has given a great number of 
texts to show that the Divine Writings unequivocally teach the ori- 
gin of the human race from a single pair, Adam and Eve ; and he 
goes so far as to say, " that the gospel must stand or fall with the 
doctrine of the unity of the human races." 

He then undertakes to prove that black races of men have ex- 
isted in ancient times in a high state of civilization ; and, assuming 
that a black race is a Negro race, he contends, contrary to the opin- 
ion of the most learned ethnologists, that the Egyptians and Mero- 
ites were nearly akin to, if not absolute Negroes. 

Remarking that "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing," and 
admitting with Leibnitz that " the utmost that can be fairly asked in 
reference to any affirmed truths of Scripture is, to prove that they 
do not involve any necessary contradiction," he thinks that the fact 
of great existing varieties offers no objection to the revelation of 
Scripture, that all the present races are the descendants of a single 
pair. He, therefore, adopts the usual theory that the existing vari- 

* Outline of a new Natural History of Man, founded upon Human Anal- 
ogies: by W. F. Van Amringe. New York, 1848. 

t The Unity of the Human Races : by Thomas Smyth, D. D. New 
York, 1850. 



60 INTRODUCTION. 

eties of man are analogous to the varieties of animals, and to be 
accounted for by the operation of natural causes, and external agen- 
cies, " or by these causes preternatu rally excited." 

Speaking of specific differences, he calls color a " separable acci- 
dent, ^^ and not a specific distinction in man, because it is not univer- 
sal in all human creatures. His remarks on hybridity will be better 
considered when speaking of Dr. Bachman's work, from which they 
are mostly quoted. The next two chapters are devoted to the con- 
sideration of the unity or common origin of languages as an argu- 
ment for the original unity of mankind. The observations on the 
testimony of history, experience, the religious character of the race, 
and the insensible gradation of the varieties, have been alluded to in 
previous authors, or will be summed up hereafter from the original 
sources. 

The most characteristic part of the work is that in which he main- 
tains that the theory of a plurality of races of men is uncharitable, 
inexpedient, and unchristian ; he collates texts to prove that the 
Negro is " God's image carved in ebony," maintaining that he has 
" the same primeval origin, the same essential attributes, the same 
moral and religious character, and the same immortal destiny " (p. 
332) ; and yet, talking about the "first law of slavery," the right 
of property in a human being enforced by divine commandment, the 
right of the master to the labor of the slave for life, of anti-slavery 
movements as blind philanthropy, &c., he says, (pp. 334—5,) 
" The relation now providentially held by the white population of 
the South to the colored race, is an ordinance of God, a form and 
condition of government permitted by Him, in view of ultimate 
beneficial results. God^s authority, God''s word, and God^s will, 
and not the applause or the condemnation of men, must be her rule 
of action.''^ This, and still stronger, language shows rather the 
polemic theologian, and the advocate of Southern institutions, than 
the scientific naturalist, and ethnologist; and, however appropriate in 
other places, is quite irrelevant on the subject of the origin of 
mankind. 



In contrast with the last author. Dr. Bachman,* in a philosophic 
manner, pursues his investigations " irrespective of any supposed 
decisions which may have been pronounced by the Scriptures." 

* The Doctrine of the Unity of the Human Race examined on the Prin- 
ciples of Science. By John Bachman, D. D. Charleston, S. C, 1850. 



INTRODUCTION. 61 

Animals and plants, in a state of domestication, or of cultivation, 
are subject to remarkable changes when removed from their native 
soils ; and these varieties become permanent, not reverting to the 
original wild stock even when returned to their original localities ; 
this he considers a well established fact. He collected together a 
great number of hybrids of animals and plants, and found them 
sterile in every instance but one ; he was satisfied " that a union 
of two species could not produce a new race, and that species were 
the creation of God." With Prichard he considers domestication 
of animals analogous to domestication in man, and that the varieties 
of the animal kingdom within the range of species explain the per- 
manent varieties of man ; or, rather, that they have been produced 
by similar causes. 

He reviews at length the alleged instances of fertile hybrids in 
the article of Dr. S. G. Morton, and finds no reason to change his 
opinion as above expressed. He objects that the instances are taken 
often from remote distances where it is impossible to verify them ; 
that the authorities quoted are either contradictory, obscure, or of 
little scientific merit ; and the innumerable instances to the contrary 
seem to him entirely decisive, that hybrids between diflferent species 
are sterile. No instance, not open to doubt, can be shown of hybrids 
fertile for several generations, without a crossing with one of the 
original stocks ; many of the so-called different species, breeding 
together, are generally believed to be mere varieties of a single 
species, e. g., of the horse, the hog, the sheep, the dog. 

As hybrids are sterile, hybridity is a test of specific character ; 
and, as all the races of men produce with each other a fertile prog- 
eny, they may fairly be said to be of the same species. 

The striking and permanent varieties of animals are acknowledged 
to be the results of an organization by which the species are enabled 
to produce varieties. Taking it for granted that we must be governed 
by the same laws for determining species in man and animals, he 
asks. Why do our opponents persist in calling human varieties dis- 
tinct species'? Instancing the well-known varieties of the wolf, 
Why do naturalists admit these as mere varieties, and insist that the 
human races are as many species 1 The same question is asked con- 
cerning the horse, the cow, the sheep, the hog, the dog, domestic 
fowls, and pigeons, in which there is the same disposition to branch 
out into varieties from a common stock, as great as between the 
races of men. Great variations have occurred in many Caucasian 
nations, while wild animals, with few exceptions, have undergone 
no change ; showing the influence of domestication. According to 
6 



62 . INTRODUCTION. 

him, man ought to be compared as a domestic species, and not as a 
wild one. 

He believes that man originated in a tropical climate ; that the 
original type no longer exists ; that the European is as much an 
improved race in form and color, as the Negro is a degenerated 
one. We have no evidence that a white race, like the Europeans, 
existed at the primitive dispersion of man. Central Asia, usually 
regarded as the birth-place of man, is also the native country of his 
domesticated animals and poultry, and of the grains and vegetable 
productions carried with him in his migrations. In what manner 
climate tends to produce human varieties, he does not pretend to say; 
the fact is evident, the manner unknown. He thinks " there is in 
the structure of man a constitutional predisposition to produce varie- 
ties in certain regions of country." To show the tendency in ani- 
mal and human constitutions to transmit peculiarities to offspring, 
he gives examples showing that excrescences and malformations, 
and even arrests of development, may be thus transmitted ; he 
shows, also, how suddenly Nature goes from one extreme to 
another in the production of Albinos. He supposes that the 
constitutions of men in early ages, before the races had become per- 
manent, may have been more susceptible of producing varieties than 
at a later period ; he believes that when new varieties are formed, 
they multiply very rapidly, while previously existing varieties dimin- 
ish. The difficulties in explaining the varieties of animals are just 
as inexplicable as those concerning the races of man ; there is, in 
the organization of animals and man, a power to produce varieties 
suited to every climate. Though he considers the African an infe- 
rior variety of the race, he shows that it is capable of considerable 
improvement ; and that even in the shape of the skull there is, in 
American-born specimens, a striking departure from the original 
type. 

From Tiedemann, he gives the conclusions : that the brain of a 
Negro is as large and as heavy as that of other human races ; the 
nerves of the Negro, the form and proportions of the various parts 
of the spinal cord, and the inward structure of the nervous system, 
show no important difference from those of the European ; the 
Negro brain does not resemble the brain of the orang-outang, any 
more than does that of the European. These results are confirmed 
by the measurement of Dr. S. G. Morton. In answer to the ques- 
tion, why a negro does not change into a white man in the native 
country of the latter, and I'ice versa, he says the races are already 
established, and varieties once formed do not revert to their original 
stocks ; the Shetland pony cannot be converted again into the wild 



INTRODUCTION. 63 

Tartar horse, any more than a negro can be reconverted into his 
lighter original stock. 

He thinks the theory of the creation of the same species of ani- 
mals and man in different localities open to the following objections : 
it supposes a multiplication of miracles, to produce an effect which 
might have been produced by second causes, viz., an organization 
capable of producing varieties suited to every climate, and ample 
means of migration. It confounds all the rules by which naturalists 
are governed in the determination of species. The creation of a 
species in one locality, and the creation of the same species as a 
very distinct variety in another locality, is very nearly equivalent to 
the creation of these as different species. The same species of 
animal, as far as he knows, is not created in separate localities, as 
regards mammals and birds. Apparent exceptions in the lower 
animals and plants may be satisfactorily accounted for in another 
manner. The animals of the Eastern Continent are all of different 
species from those of America, with the exception of the Arctic 
animals, which can easily migrate to the temperate latitudes of either 
continent. The eggs of fishes, crabs, and other lower animals, very 
tenacious of life, are the food of many birds of powerful flight, and 
may be voided from their bodies at considerable distances while they 
yet contain the principle of life. Seeds are also conveyed to im- 
mense distances by various animals, pass through their bodies, and 
spring up. This may account for the apparent existence of the 
same species, in the few cases where it has been observed, in local- 
ities remote from each other. Geological changes of the earth's 
surface should also be considered in this connection. Currents of 
water and winds also scatter seeds to great distances from their orig- 
inal source. A last objection is the nature of man's organization, 
endowed with a constitutional power to become naturalized in every 
climate. 

He coincides with Dr. Pickering in referring the American In- 
dians to the Mongolian race, and the inhabitants of California, «fec., 
to the Malay, though he arrived at this conclusion before he knew 
Dr. Pickering's views. 



Dr. Morton* divides the American race into two families, one of 
which, the Toltecan, bears evidence of centuries of civilization, 

* Crania Americana, by Samuel George Mortonj M. D. Philadel- 
phia, 1839. 



^ INTRODUCTION. 

while the other, the American, embraces all the barbarous tribes of 
the New World except the Polar nations. 

Between the Appalachian, the Brazilian, Patagonian and Fuegian 
branches of the American family, there are some slight differences, 
which may be attributed to the effects of climate and locality and 
the consequent habits of life ; though all have the low, broad fore- 
head, high cheek-bones, aquiline nose, large mouth, and wide skull, 
prominent at vertex, with flattened occiput, peculiar to the American 
race. The orbits have their superior margin slightly curved, and 
the inferior margin like an inverted arch, contrasting strongly with 
the oblong orbit and parallel margins of the Malay. The Toltecan 
family includes the semi-civilized nations of Mexico, Peru, Bogota, 
Guatlmala, Yucatan, Nicaragua. This differs from the American 
family in intellectual faculties principally. Their architectural 
remains show their great attainments in the practical arts of life. 
This family is the Neptunian species of Bory de St. Vincent, who 
refers them to the Malay race, in which Dr. Morton does not agree 
with him, for reasons to be given hereafter. From the examination 
of nearly one hundred Peruvian crania, he at first came to the con- 
clusion that the heads of the ancient Peruvians were naturally/ very 
much elongated, differing in this respect from the Inca Peruvians, 
who appeared later. That opinion he has since* given up, and 
believes the elongated shape to be the result of compression. He 
now believes that the descendants of the ancient Peruvians yet dwell 
in the land of their ancestors, under the name of Aymaras, their 
probable primitive name ; that the Aymaras resemble the surround- 
ing Q'lichua nations in almost every respect, having ceased to mould 
the head artificially ; that, according to M. D'Orbigny, the flattened 
skulls were always those of men, while the heads of women retained 
the natural American shape ; that this deformity was a mark of dis- 
tinction ; that these people were the architects of their own tombs 
and temples ; that the capacity of the cranium is the same in the 
ancient and modern Peruvians, about seventy-six cubic inches, — a 
smallness of size without parallel, except among the Hindoos. 
D'Orbigny also believes that the ancient Peruvians were the lineal 
progenitors of the Inca family, — a question not yet decided. The 
ancient Peruvian head is remarkable for its long, narrow form, 
inclined forehead, and length of the occiput behind the ear; the face 
is proportionally narrow. 

The Inca Peruvians date their possession of Peru from the Ilth 
century, — a period corresponding with the migration of the Tol- 

* Journal of Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia. Vol. 8, 1842. 



INTRODUCTION. 65 

tecas from Mexico ; hence it has been supposed these were of com- 
mon origin. At any rate, the Incas are supposed to have been an 
intruding nation. The Inca skull is remarkable for its small size, 
its quadrangular and unsymmetrical form, its prominent vertex, its 
compressed and often vertical occiput projecting to one side or the 
other, and its consequent great parietal diameter. He thinks this 
flatness of the occiput, common to the v^hole American race, may 
be increased by the manner of treating their children in the cradle. 

The heads of the ancient Mexicans resemble, both in size and 
form, the unaltered heads of the ancient Peruvians, with considera- 
ble lateral swell, and shortened longitudinal diameter. While the 
Mexicans were superior to other American nations in intellectual 
character, their moral perceptions were as much inferior. All their 
institutions, civil and religious, were calculated to debase the best 
feelings of human nature ; among these was the custom of sacrificing 
human victims. The difference between the ancient Mexicans and 
their modern descendants, where the race is unmixed, is no greater 
than that between the ancient Egyptians and the present Copt. 

The traditions of the Natchez Indians state that they migrated 
from Mexico. The analogies between them and the Toltecas are, 
the worship of the sun, human sacrifices, hereditary distinctions, 
and fixed institutions, in which they also differed from all the other 
Florida nations. They had also the singular custom of compressing 
their heads from before backwards, giving to them a great height 
and width. 

He is satisfied that the American Indians, the Toltecan family, 
and the builders of the mounds, belong to one and the same great 
race, indigenous to America ; and that they are not Mongols, Hin- 
doos, or Jews. He thinks the Toltecan family were the only build- 
ers of mounds. 

In a subsequent paper* Dr. Morton gives his reasons for consid- 
ering all the American nations, except the Esquimaux, as of one 
race, peculiar and distinct from all others. The Indian physiog- 
nomy he considers " as undeviatingly characteristic as that of the 
Negro ; for, whether we see him in the athletic Charib or the 
stunted Chayma, in the dark Californian or the fair Borroa, he is an 
Indian still, and cannot be mistaken for a being of any other race." 

From the comparison of 400 crania, from tribes inhabiting every 
region of both Americas, he finds the same osteological structure in 
all, viz., squared head, flattened occiput, high cheek-bones, heavy 
maxillae, large quadrangular orbits, and low, receding forehead. 

* Boston Journal of Natural History, vol. 4, p. 190, et seq. 
6* 



66 INTRODUCTION. 

This applies equally to the oldest crania from Peruvian and Mexi- 
can cemeteries, and the mounds of the Mississippi valley, and the 
existing- Indian tribes. 

The moral traits are equally strongly marked. Among them are 
a sleepless caution, which influences every thought and action, and 
causes their proverbial taciturnity and invincible firmness ; a love of 
war and destruction ; habitual indolence and improvidence ; indiffer- 
ence to private property ; and the vague simplicity of their religious 
observances. These are the same from the humanized Peruvian to 
the rudest Brazilian savage. 

They are averse to the restraints of civilization, and seem incapa- 
ble of reasoning on abstract subjects ; they improve not in mechan- 
ical pursuits, in making their huts or their boats ; their imitative 
faculty is very small. The long annals of missionary labor give no 
authentic exception to this state of things. Contrasted with these 
barbarous tribes are the Mexicans and Peruvians, whose civilization 
has been before sufficiently alluded to. If it be asked how nations, 
derived from the same stock, should differ so widely, it may be 
replied that the contrast is the same between the Saracens, who 
established their kingdom in Spain, and the Bedouins of the Desert, 
between the Greeks of the present day and the Greeks of the age 
of Pericles ; and yet these last are known to belong to the same 
stock. What accounts for the one may explain the other. 

In maritime enterprise the American Indian is very much behind 
other races, even in situations where the ocean invites him to use it 
as a means of subsistence or communication. In this respect he dif- 
fers greatly from the Malay, (or Homo Neptunianus, as he might be 
called,) to whom some consider the American related in Califor- 
nia, &c. 

Their manner of interment is so different from that of other races, 
and so prevalent among themselves, that it constitutes another means 
of identifying them as a single and peculiar race. This consists in 
buryinjr the dead in the sitting posture, the legs being flexed against 
tlie abdomen, the arms being bent, and the chin supported on the palms 
of the hands. This prevails, with but few exceptions, from north 
to south. 

The Esquimaux differ so widely from the Americans, in physi- 
cal and moral traits, and their aquatic habits, that their ethno- 
graphic dissimilarity seems evident to him. He thinks there is no 
more resemblance between the Indian and Mongolian, in physical 
characters, in arts, architecture, mental and social features, (es- 
pecially nautical skill,) than between any other two distinct races. 
The Mongolian theory is objectionable on account of its vastness, 



INTRODUCTION. 67 

requiring a long succession of colonies for a distance of 8000 miles, 
which must have left traces of their series of human waves in the 
north, where the pressure must have been greatest and the coloniza- 
tion longest in duration ; but none such are found. 



It remains to present the arguments in favor of an original differ- 
ence of the human races, and their creation in several different cen- 
tres ; in doing which we shall be obliged to draw on short treatises, 
most of them recently published, as well as on a dissertation pub- 
licly pronounced by the writer. 

With those who, like Prichard, believe that the Mosaic account 
of creation is a full and complete record, to be literally and strictly 
interpreted, all argument is of course useless, notwithstanding the 
numerous discrepancies and deficiencies which may be pointed out in 
that record. Lord Bacon uttered a great truth, when he said, "The 
union of religious and philosophical investigation is often detrimental 
to the cause of truth." It is not Christian philosophy that would 
have men shrink from the investigation of Nature, from fear of find- 
ing a contradiction between the luorJcs and the loord of God. When 
rightly understood, they must harmonize. Nor can we assume that 
human knowledge has as yet arrived at its maximum in the com- 
prehension of the loord any more than it has of the works of God. 

Professor Agassiz * remarks that though the question is not at all 
connected with religion, and belongs entirely to natural history, still 
the theory of the diversity of origin of the human races does not 
contradict the Mosaic record, which is best explained by referring it 
to the historical races. There is in it no account of the origin of 
nations unknown to the ancients, as the Arctic nations, Japanese, 
Chinese, Australians, Americans. We have a right to consider all 
possible meanings of the text, and no one can object except those 
" whose religion consists in a blind adoration of their own construc- 
tion of the Bible." There is not a line in it which hints that the 
differences in nations were introduced by the agency of time. All 
its statements refer either to the general moral and spiritual unity 
of man, (which no one denies,) or to the genealogy of a particu- 
lar race. There is no evidence that the sacred writers considered 
the colored races as descended from the same stock as themselves. 
This is a modern and human invention for political or other purposes. 
By taking into view these non-historic races, with no records, and 
consequently unmentioned in the Bible, we greatly " lessen the per- 
plexity of those who cannot conceive that the Bible is not a text- 
book of natural history, and who would like to find there informa- 

* Christian Examiner, Boston, March and July, 1850. 



68 INTRODUCTION. 

tion upon all those subjects which have been left for man to investi- 
gate." If, then, the origin of the human race, from a single pair, 
can be proved at all, it must be proved independently of the Jewish 
Scriptures ; it must be treated as a pure scientific question. 

Many of the varieties of domestic animals are ascribed to climate. 
If this be the true cause, asks Agassiz, " why do we find difl!erent 
varieties in the same climate? Why does the Durham breed of 
cattle continue in the United States with all its peculiarities ? ' ' 
The care of man, greater than the influence of climate, can keep 
up varieties in spite of it. Superficial observers — "those who 
have only known the differences called climatic differences, existing 
between some mammalia and birds, which occur simultaneously in 
different latitudes — may well have assumed that such differences 
have been produced by change introduced in the course of time ;" 
but when we consider the great mass of facts in natural history, 
known only to those who have made it a special study, these inade- 
quate and accidental causes cannot explain such general phenomena. 

In considering this subject we are not to confound the Unity of 
Mankind with the Diversity of Origin of the Human Races — ques- 
tions which are quite distinct, and have almost no connection with 
each other. 

The geographical distribution of animals furnishes to the natural- 
ist very strong evidence in favor of the original diversity of the 
human races. There are certain recognized zoological and botan- 
ical provinces, with well-defined and constant limits. The Fauna 
and Flora of each hemisphere, and of each zone, have their peculiar 
characters ; more resembling each other as we go towards the 
north, and more widely different as we approach the equator. Even 
marine animals, in an element undergoing very little change and 
especially suited for rapid and distant migrations, are restricted to a 
certain extent of surface, or are confined strictly to certain depths. 
We have no right to say that the law, " Thus far shalt thou go, and 
no farther," was impressed on animal and vegetable life as a subse- 
quent addition to the creative act. 

We know, too, that there have been successive creations of ani- 
mals and plants at different geological periods ; and that they were 
distributed in localities best suited for their life and growth for a 
certain time. In many instances, as in the Edentata of Brazil and 
the Marsupiata of New Holland, these fossil types were the same 
as the actually existing types of these localities, though of different 
genera and species ; this coincidence of distinct creations, separated 
by immense intervals of time, but occupying precisely the same 
limits, is certainly difficult to explain by the theory of the origin of 



INTRODUCTION. 69 

all animals from the high lands of Asia, or any other single centre. 
It is not probable that the same animals would have twice wandered 
across land and sea to the sa7ne localities. Of this local creation of 
animals, the island of New Holland furnishes a striking example ; 
nearly as large as all Europe, it contains animals and plants pecu- 
liar to itself. With the exception of our opossum, the marsupial 
animals are peculiar to this region, and no higher animals are abun- 
dant. Most of the genera and all the species of plants were new to 
botanists. Most of the fishes belong to the cartilaginous type. To 
Asia belong the orang-outang, the tiger, the dziggetai, &c. ; to 
Africa, the chimpanzee, the zebra, the hippopotamus, the lion, the 
gnu, the giraffe, &c. ; to America, the ant-eater, the buffalo, the 
llama, the grizzly bear, the moose, the beautiful humming birds, and 
the mocking bird. 

There seems no avoiding the conclusion that there have been 
many local centres of animal and vegetable creation. Is it most 
consistent with the wisdom of God to place originally every species 
in the climate and soil most congenial to it 1 or to create all species 
in one spot, whether suited to them or not, and leave them to find 
out their present localities, at the risk, perhaps, of life "? To adopt 
the latter view seems to be placing the Deity below a mere human 
contriver.* Wherever we examine nature, we find a perfect adap- 
tation of animals to the circumstances under which they live ; when 
these are changed, the animals cease to exist. The domestic animals 
and man are able to resist external changes for a longer period, but 
even these finally degenerate and die. " Thatwhich," says Agassiz, 
*• among organized beings is essential to their temporal existence must 
be at least one of the conditions under which they were created." 

The American tribes are uniform from Canada to Cape Horn, 
whatever the variety of climate ; yet they differ from Africans, 
Asiatics, or Australians ; while the inhabitants of the southern 
extremities of America, Africa, and New Holland, regions having 
almost the same physical conformation, are extremely unlike each 
other. We must conclude that " these races cannot have assumed 
their peculiar features after they had migrated into these countries 
from a supposed common centre ; that they must have originated, 
with the animals and plants living there, in the same numerical pro- 
portions and over the same area in which they now occur." These 
conditions are necessary to their maintenance. 

* "Distribution," says Van Amringe, " can only relate to the subjects 
to be distributed ; but the Old World never had the fauna of New Hol- 
land and America ; and therefore could not distribute them. From 
whence did they come ? " (p. 144.) 



70 INTRODUCTION. 

We find the races of man occupying circumscribed localities in inti- 
mate connection with the recognized zoological and botanic provinces. 
Arctic man, like Arctic animals, is the same in America, Europe and 
Asia. The races become more distinct as we approach the equator. 
In temperate Europe we have the great Caucasian family, whose 
three great branches may be said to be three varieties of the same 
species, as the varieties of the lion in northern and southern Afri- 
ca (though having their peculiar marks) constitute one species. 
In temperate Asia we have the Mongolian race ; in temperate 
America we have the Indian. In the tropics we have the African 
nations, the Malay race, and the people of Central America and the 
West Indies (by some considered congenital with the Malays). In 
New Holland we have the Australian ; in the Pacific islands we 
have the Polynesian, and several local varieties. In southern 
Africa we have the Bushman, the Hottentot and Kafir; in south- 
ern America, the Patagonian and Fuegian. Among the quadrumana, 
which approach nearest to man, we see a similar adaptation of 
species to continents. The monkeys of America, of Asia, of 
Africa, of Madagascar, are different from each other ; and what is 
curious is the fact that the black orang is confined to the continent 
occupied by the black human races, while the brown orang is found 
with the tawny Malay races. Is it at all likely that one is a modi- 
fication of the other, by climate or external circumstances ? 

These facts, to the mind of a naturalist, would prove that both 
man, and animals and plants, originated together in the places 
where they are found ; for why should man alone assume new 
peculiarities, very different from his supposed primitive ones, while 
animals and plants, in the same limits, " preserve their natural rela- 
tions to the fauna and flora of other parts of the world ?" We trace 
the same general laws throughout nature, and there can be no room 
" for the supposition that, while men inhabiting different parts of 
the world originated from a common centre, the plants and animals 
now associated with them, in the same countries, originated on the 
spot ; such inconsistencies do not occur in the laws of nature." We 
have additional evidence of the primitive ubiquity of man on the 
earth in the fact, that, wherever men have migrated, they have 
found aboriginal nations ; we have no record of people migrating to 
a land which they found entirely destitute of inhabitants. 

As to tlie creation of a single pair, or pairs, it is opposed to the 
economy of nature, except in a few instances. In some species of 
animals, both sexes are of equal numbers ; in some there are many 
females to one male ; in others, one female to many males, as the 
bee ; some, in which a single individual is the whole species ; others, 



INTKODUCTION. 71 

in which many individuals live a common life, as the corals, — so 
that the number of individuals usually found together is one of the 
peculiar natural characteristics of species. The reproductive system 
of animals proves, then, that many of them were not created in single 
pairs, or in a number of pairs; for thus they could not have propa- 
gated their species. " The idea of a pair of herrings or a pair of 
buffaloes is as contrary to the nature and habits of those animals, as 
it is contrary to the nature of pines and birches to grow singly, and 
form forests in their isolation. A bee-hive never consists of a pair 
of bees, and never could such a pair preserve the species, with their 
habits." " Was the primitive pair of lions to abstain from food 
until the gazelles and other antelopes had sufficiently multiplied to 
preserve their races from the persecution of those ferocious beasts ?" 
We find the same animals occurring in places distant from each 
other, in Europe and America, under such circumstances that we 
must admit their simultaneous origin in both centres. Setting 
aside the possibility of the conveyance of eggs in the crops of birds, 
&c., which, after having been rejected or laid in the water, may 
spread species to a certain extent, the great mass of facts can hardly 
be explained in this way, unless by a very great stretch of credulity. 

We can only refer to this paper* by Agassiz, where many instances 
are adduced, which show that animals have originated primitively over 
the whole extent of their natural distribution, and in large numbers ; 
and that the same species may have a multiple origin, as is shown 
by the lions in Africa, the fishes of the Rhine, Rhone, and Danube, 
&c. Is it not, then, equivalent to making physical influences more 
powerful than the Creator, to trace all animals from a common 
centre, and to trust the production of animals to a single pair, 
exposed to innumerable accidents from climate and the attacks of 
other animals? In the words of Agassiz,f " The view of mankind 
as originating from a single pair, Adam and Eve, and of the ani- 
mals and plants as having originated from one common centre, which 
was at the same time the cradle of humanity, is neither a biblical 
view nor a correct view, nor one agreeing with the results of 
science ; and our profound veneration for the Sacred Scriptures 
prompts us to pronounce the prevailing view of the origin of man, 
animals and plants, as a mere human hypothesis, not entitled to 
more consideration than belongs to most theories formed in the 
infancy of science." 

Considering, then, the climatic varieties of man as primitive, 

* Christian Examiner, March, 1850. tibid. 



72 INTRODUCTION. 

the question of the plurality of races is converted into the question 
whether these varieties are species. 

That men are nearly related, physically and mentally, is no reason 
why a community of origin should be claimed for them ; we have 
the same near relations among animals, for which community of 
origin has never been claimed. For instance, the carnivora all 
agree in peculiar teeth and claws for seizing their prey ; in a short 
alimentary canal for digesting animal food ; in their savage and 
unsocial dispositions ; constituting a natural unity in the animal 
kingdom, entirely different from that of the quadrumana, ruminantia, 
&c. But for all this, who ever derived the wolf, the tiger and the 
bear from a common stock ? And yet they exhibit closer resemblance 
of dispositions then the different races of men. Common character 
does not prove common descent. The species of the genus Felis, 
so similar in habits and structure, were never supposed to be one 
and the same species ; for the same reason, there may be different 
species of the genus Homo, as far as this argument is concerned. 



Van Amringe,* speaking of the incompleteness and obscurity of 
the Mosaic account of the creation of man, asks, whence came Cain's 
fear that some one, finding him, should slay him, if the only per- 
sons living, at the death of Abel, were Adam, Eve and himself? 
and why the reply of the Lord, that " whosoever slayeth Cain, 
vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold?" and whence the necessity 
of putting a mark on him? Surely his father and mother, and their 
descendants, would not have killed him. The departure of Cain, 
his marriage, the birth of his son Enoch, and his building a city, 
took place before the birth of Seth, the next human being, according 
to Moses. The intermarriage of the "sons of God" with the 
" daughters of men" was the cause of the wickedness punished by 
the flood. There were also " giants in the earth in those days," 
who *' cannot be referred to Cain as their progenitor, because four 
generations from Cain are mentioned, among whom there were no 
giants ; and these are sufficient to cover the whole intermediate time " 
to the epoch of the flood, [p. 57.] All these point to a race of 
men independent of Adam. Even though all the descendants of 
Adam, except Noah and his family, had perished in the flood, there 
may have been other men, in parts of the earth not reached by the 

* Outline of a New Natural History of Man, founded upon Human Anal< 
ogies. By W. F. Van Amringe. New York, 1848. 



INTRODUCTION". 73 

Noachian deluge, who escaped. Those who wish to satisfy them- 
selves on the limited extent of the deluge, may consult with advan- 
tage the work of Dr. John Pye Smith, " On the Relation between 
the Holy Scriptures and some parts of Geological Science." 

The fact that so many learned men continue to attribute the varie- 
ties in animals to climate, food, and other external circumstances, 
and the various human races to the same causes, can only be accounted 
for " on the supposition that they believe the subject to be settled by 
revelation in its results ; and that, however contrary to it the facts 
may appear, they must be made to conform to it in their conclu- 
sions ;" this, continues Van Amringe, is a perverse disregard of the 
inductive method of philosophizing, " more particularly as, from our 
knowledge of the various nations of the globe, all the known facts 
are decidedly against any such theory." That animals change to a 
limited extent, we know ; that man thus changes, we do not know ; 
and that he must so change is based solely on analogy. The human 
constitution has a remarkable power of adapting itself to climate, 
which animals have in a less degree ; in the latter we expect change, 
in the former we do not expect it, and have never seen it ; there is no 
analogy, in this respect, between man and animals. 

As regards the changes produced by food, there is no analogy 
between animals and man ; the former, in domestication, usually 
depend upon a single article, as grass ; while omnivorous man, if he 
cannot get meat or vegetables, can fall back upon " train oil, spiders, 
serpents, or ant eggs." If the supply fail for the former, changes 
will ensue, against which man is better protected. The Jews are 
a remarkable proof that climate and mode of living do not change 
human races to any great extent ; wanderers in every land, they are 
now as distinct as they were two thousand years ago ; the unmixed 
Jew is recognized at a glance. 

Prichard and his follower* allow that, with few exceptions, the 
varieties of domestic anJinals, if left to themselves, show a tendency 
to return to a supposed primitive type. The difficulty of keeping up 
any particular breed of pigeons or rabbits is well known ; sheep con- 
tinually show a tendency to return to the dark color of the wild 
mouflon ; " black sheep annoy the farmer by appearing in the midst 
of the most carefully-bred flock." It requires continual care to pre- 
vent even the dog, the most modified perhaps of all animals, from 
degenerating. That time alone does not alter species is proved by 
the mummies of animals found in the catacombs of Egypt, and the 
representations of species, identical with the existing ones, on the 
walls of the temples and the outer cases of human mummies. (Mar- 
tin, op. cit.) 

7 



74 INTRODUCTION. 

The color of the human skin is not regarded as of so much impor- 
tance as it formerly was ; though no sufficient reasons are given. In 
every animal but man, color, when transmitted from generation to 
generation unchanged, is considered of specific value. It is said, 
though without any facts to sustain it, that climate insensibly pro- 
duces the change of color with other physical changes. If climate 
can change a white into a black man, producing what we claim gen- 
erally as a specific distinction, what difference does it imply to admit 
the general doctrine of Lamarck " that the vast variety of organisms 
w^ere produced by the operation of laws, by development, and not by 
direct creation?" There is no reason why we should not insist on 
the specific value of color in man, at least to the same extent as we 
admit it in animals. Says Van Amringe, " The moral question of uni- 
versal brotherhood and its consequent obligations is not affected by 
making the permanent differences, acknowledged by all to prevail in 
the different races of mankind, to owe their origin either to the 
direct or indirect agency of our common creation." 

M. Flourens considers the color of the skin more characteristic of 
distinctness of species than any other peculiarity ; but, though we 
may accept his conclusions, (for reasons which will hereafter appear,) 
he probably labored under an error in assuming the existence of a 
peculiar membrane in the Negro skin, which is entirely wanting in 
the white races.* Allowing, with Henle and Simon, that the skin 
is not composed of continuous membranes, but of layers of cells ; of 
epidermic cells, among which are interspersed the pigment cells on 
which the color of the skin, hair, and eyes, depends; the fact that 
the microscope was necessary to discover the rete Malpighii in the 
white races, while " in the dark races it has long been known, and 
is easily discoverable, and separable by maceration, without a micro- 
scope, and that it increases in ikickness in the descending series of 
species, until, in some Negroes, it is thicker than the cuticle," is 
sufficient to show that the functions of a skin, so differently pro- 
portioned in the various races, may be considered specifically adapted 
to the circumstances under which the several varieties of man were 
formed to live. 

Microscopic examination has proved that the hair of the Negro is 

* "The uniform color," says Lawrence, " of all parts of the body is a 
strong argument against those who ascribe the blackness of the Negro to 
the same cause as that which produces tanning in white people ; namely, 
the sun's rays. Neither is the peculiar color of the Negro confined to the 
skin ; a small circle of the conjunctiva, round the cornea, is blackish, and 
the rest of the membrane has a yellowish brown tinge." 



INTKODUCTION. 75 

not " wool," but at the same time has shown that it is of a very dif- 
ferent texture from that of the white races. There is an actual 
difference in the structure of the hair in the different races ; and this 
difference does not depend on the color, for the black hair of the 
Negro is not at all like the equally black hair of the European, The 
hair of the Albino Negro, " whether red or flaxen, is as knotty, as 
wiry, and as woolly, as that of his sable parents." The closest curls 
of the European head never approach the short wiry hair of the 
African, unless the races have been mixed; and it should be recol- 
lected that such a single mixture may have an influence for several 
generations. 

Are, then, the differences which characterize the several races of 
men analogous in kind and degree to those which distinguish the 
breeds of domestic animals ? And are they to be accounted for on 
the same principles ? 

It is maintained that the effects of domestication on animals and 
the effects of civilization on man are analogous. This supposes that 
the original condition of man was wild like that of animals 4 that he 
emerged from this condition, became domestic, and domesticated 
certain animals with the same results for them as for him. All 
these suppositions are necessary, and all have been taken for granted, 
and used accordingly. That civilization has not produced physical 
changes in man, the authors themselves admit, when they refer this 
or that ancient skull to the Caucasian or Ethiopian race, according 
to its characters, which implies permanence of the distinguishing 
marks. This is proved by all history ; by the monuments of Egypt, 
which show that 4000 years of civilization, at any rate, have not 
changed man. Says Van Amringe, "If it could be proved that a 
mouse changed to an ox by domestication, we imagine that it would 
be insuflScient to prove that man suffered physical change by civiliza- 
tion, in opposition to undoubted records to the contrary." 

Man is the most domestic of animals ; domesticity is in him " a 
natural instinct, a law of his being, a principle upon which all of his 
virtues, all of his civilization, all of his progress in this world, 
depends ;" but domestication in animals, far from being instinctive, 
or a law of their nature, is " a violence done to them, a tyranny 
exercised over them ; it is a slavery so absolute and perfect that 
their very natures are subdued, and their natural instincts, as far as 
opposed to man's interest, blunted and overpowered." Their tem- 
pers are modified, their bony structure even is changed, by an 
unnatural climate, food, and management. Improvements in domes- 
ticated animals are degenerations in regard to the animals themselves. 
The difference between the skulls of the wild boar and the domestic 



76 INTRODUCTION. 

hog is constantly adduced, as analogous to the differences between 
the Caucasian and Negro cranium. But look at the cause of change: 
the wild animal is confined in a sty, where his natural instinct. of 
rooting in the ground, for which his head is especially adapted, can- 
not be exercised ; the powerful muscles attached to the nose not 
being called into play, the bones to which they are attached, by a 
physiological law, are modified accordingly. Civilization, on the con- 
trary, places man in a position where his natural powers are more 
advantageously exercised and increased. Domestication in animals 
is a life of unnatural constraint and real degeneration. There is not 
only no analogy, but not even the slightest resemblance, between them ; 
and, consequently, physical differences dependent thereon cannot be 
considered analogous. If the physical changes of domestication are 
analogous to any physical changes of man, it must be of civilized 
man, according to their analogy ; but we have seen that civilization 
does not physically change man ; and, moreover, where would be 
the analogies of the savage tribes of the greater part of our globe, 
among whom exists the only difficulty to be explained ? 

Neither are the moral and intellectual qualities of man analogous 
in kind and degree to the qualities of domestic animals. Dr. Prich- 
ard talks about " psychological characteristics" of animals, as if 
they had such. Animals have but a single nature, a bodily nature, 
depending on, and connected with, their external senses ; man has, 
in addition, a spiritual nature, connecting him with eternity, which 
animals have not. Animals have no moral nature. Man is, also, a 
progressive being, and must therefore have an intellectual element, 
capable of improvement. Animals are created perfect, with instincts 
capable of no improvement ; animals have no intellectual nature ; 
animals of themselves never improve ; man improves of himself, 
from a law of his nature.* In any view, therefore, animals furnish 
no analogies with man, in either physical, moral or intellectual prop- 

* Pilchard's theory required that animals should be the analogues of 
men, and it was therefore necessary to raise animals, or sink man to their 
level. By merely substituting the word "psychological" for "instinct- 
ive " characteristics, says Van Amringe, he raised the whole animal 
kingdom to the required level. He thus got related the psychology of 
animals and man, " without the trouble of philosophically accomplishing 
so impossible a thing;" and thus obtained "a specious right to use bees 
and wasps, rats and dogs, sheep, goats and rabbits, in short, the whole 
animal kingdom, as human psychical analogues, which would be amaz- 
ingly couvenient, when conclusions were to be made." 



INTKODUCTION. 77 

erties, which can be legitimately used to assist in the natural history 
of mankind. 

This doctrine, that the varieties of man have arisen from native or 
congenital varieties, " rests entirely," says Van Amringe, " upon 
supposed analogy, in this respect, between domestic animals and 
man." This doctrine would never have been adopted in any 
country but England, where the breeding of domestic animals has 
been carried to such perfection. But even here the analogy fails ; 
every breeder knows " that an improved animal has a greater 
tendency to defect than to perfection ;" there is a constant tendency 
to deterioration. The varieties of domestic animals are produced 
only by the greatest skill and perseverance, and are only pre- 
served by the utmost care in feeding and general management. 
*' Breeding in and in, closely, constitutes a kind of hybrid race, 
by enervating the procreative power. Thus the highly-bred 
new Leicester cattle were speedily extinguished." How differ- 
ent in the case of the human races ! Such precautions never have 
been taken ; yet, to make out any analogy, they ought to have been 
observed. How, then, can it be inferred, from analogy, that an 
accidental human variety might have become permanent without the 
slightest care? If it be said, with Mr. Lawrence, that the Negro 
and the European are the two extremes of a very long gradation, 
with innumerable intermediate stages, it may be replied, there is no 
such gradation in domestic animals, whose colors change by very 
sudden degrees, as it were by leaps ; here analogy fails again. 
How came it, too, " that some of these changes were arrested in 
their intermediate stages, while others proceeded to an extreme 
black ?" History reaches far back towards the flood, yet makes no 
mention of such changes in man. 

Too much importance has been attached to individual examples, by 
which almost any extravagance might be sustained. It has been 
too hastily inferred from the " porcupine men," and such congenital 
monsters, observed for a short period only, that accidental varieties 
may account for the differences of the human races. 

Authors have not agreed as to what is a species ; each one 
defining it to suit his purpose. To Prichard's definition is attached 
what he calls a " permanent variety," which differs from a species 
in the changes not being coeval with the tribe. Though a most 
important point, it is, on his part, a mere assumption, for he does 
not mention a single fact in support of it. Showing that domestic 
animals change, and that they differ from each other as much as 

man does from man, neither proves any relation between them, nor 

7* 



JS INTRODUCTION. 

that such diversities have arisen in man since his origin, and consti- 
tute a deviation from his original character.* 

Taking Dr. Morton's definition of species " a primordial organic 
form,'''' wliich implies a uniformity of anatomical and physiological 
organization from the beginning, let us see if any specific differences 
can be made out in man, on as good grounds as in other animals. 
Owen (Van Amringe, p. 263) gives twenty-three differences be- 
tween the orang-outang and the chimpanzee, which were long 
regarded as one species ; only four of these are instances of really 
distinct structure, viz., an additional pair of ribs, a single instead of 
a double series of bones in the sternum, the non-division of the 
pisiform bone of the wrist, and having two phalanges in the great 
toe, with a nail. The other differences relate to shape, length and 
persistence of parts ; but, as function follows organization, and all 
the habits and instincts of the animal depend upon it, these differences 
were considered of specific value. 

Van Amringe (p. 268) gives the following osteological points in 
which the Negro differs from the Caucasian: 1. The cranium is 
compressed laterally, elongated towards the front, retreating from 
the superciliary ridges, and smaller in proportion to the face. 2. 
The frontal and parietal bones are less excavated and less capacious. 
3. The temporal ridge mounts higher, nearly to the top of the 
head. (To this may be added the peculiarity mentioned by Prich- 
ard in the Ashantee skull, that the sphenoid bone does not reach 
the parietal bone.) 4. The temporal fossa and zygoma are larger, 
stronger, and more capacious. 5. The cheek-bones project more, 
and are stronger, broader and thicker. 5. The orbits are larger, 
especially the external aperture. 7. The ossa nasi are flatter and 
shorter, and run together above into an acute angle. 8. The plates 
of the ethmoid bone are more complicated, and the cribriform lamella 
more extensive. 9. The jaws are larger and stronger, the alveolar 
incisive portion projecting. 10. The chin is receding and rudimen- 
tary. 11. The foramen magnum and occipital condyles are in a 
more backward position. 12. The skull is heavier, and denser, and 
harder, particularly the sides. 13. The fore-arm is proportionally 
longer. 14. The hand and fingers are proportionally narrower and 
longer; (according to Agassiz, the fingers are more webbed.) 15. 
Sesamoid bones are general ; rare in the Caucasian. 16. The pelvis 
is longer and narrower. 17. The femur, tibia, and fibula, are more 

* Variety implies want of permanence, and a tendency to return, sooner 
or later, to the original type ; and we know of no animals, permanently 
distinct from others, which can be undoubtedly traced to the same 
orisinal source. 



INTRODUCTION. "" 79 

convex, or gibbous. 18. The femur and tibia are so articulated, 
that the knees are generally thrown outwards. 19. The os calcis, 
instead of forming an arch with the tarsus, is horizontal, (the pos- 
terior portion longer,) and the foot flat.* 

These variations in structure imply variety of function, habit and ■ 
powers. Psychical powers may be greatly influenced by slight 
anatomical differences ; " so slight as to be scarcely appreciable by 
the anatomist, and yet confer a character upon the beings more 
widely different in every respect, than all the thumbs, tails, cheek- 
pouches, and callosities in the monkey family." We must not dis- 
regard them, simply because they pass gradually one into the other ; 
for this we have seen is true of the whole animal kingdom, which 
is certainly not all one species. 

Difference of form, if constant and uniform, is of specific value, for 
it implies a difference of means to attain the same end. 

Difference of color is of no less value in defining species in ani- 
mals. " The lion is not more regularly tawny, the tiger more regu- 
larly streaked, nor the leopard more regularly spotted, than the sev- 
eral races of men are uniformly distinguished from each other by 
their colors." 

Difference of hair has been sufficiently alluded to ; being perma- 
nent in the respective races, it is of specific value. 

We see mankind confined to distinct localities, with permanent 
distinctions of form and color ; with different social relations, 
religion, governments, habits and intellectual powers ; the same 
from the remotest historical time. The psychical differences among 
men are as great as usually form specific differences in animals. In 
tlie Caucasian nations, generally, we see the rights of woman 
acknowledged and established ; enlightened governments, just laws, 
a rational system of religion, commerce, agriculture, art and 
science in the highest known perfection. In the Mongolian races, 
woman is a slave, an article of merchandise, government despotic, 
religion idolatrous, laws unjust and bloody, commerce, agriculture, 
in a low state ; all the arts of life little advanced, and stationary 
for ages. In the American races, the state of things is worse still ; 
and in the African, at the lowest point. If it be said that these are 
the results of education and circumstances, a difference of capacity 
must still lie at the bottom. The causes which have produced 
these results " operated in full force anterior to profane history, and 
have never since varied ; consequently, the naturalist may fairly take 
it for granted that they are natural causes, until the contrary is 

* And, according to Dr. Knox, the nervous system, and every muscle of 
the body is different. 



80 INTRODUCTION. 

proved by something more than a mere speculation, or presump- 
tion, that they are accidental." 

The constitutional temperaments of the different races, on which 
the author just quoted lays so much stress, seem to measure 
their capacity for improvement. There is every variety in the 
white races ; while the other races are noted for a great apparent 
uniformity, so that to have seen one of a race, you have seen the 
whole. The dark races have a less nervous sensibility than 
the white. Dr. Mosely (Treatise on Tropical Diseases) says, 
" Negroes are void of sensibility to a surprising degree. They are 
not subject to nervous diseases. They sleep sound in every disease, 
nor does any mental disturbance ever keep them awake. They 
bear chirurgical operations much better than white people ; and what 
would be the cause of insupportable pain to a white man, a Negro 
would almost disregard." The American dark races bear with 
indifference tortures insupportable to a white man. Is it not possible, 
says Van Amringe, that the increased coloring matter in the skin 
protects the subjacent nerves to a greater extent against external 
impressions ? He states, on what he considers good authority, that 
the Negro expires less carbonic acid than the white man. "Hence 
Africans seldom have fetid breath, but transpire the fetid matter, 
somewhat modified, chiefly by the skin." This would explain the 
greater amount of oily substance with which the black skin abounds, 
by concentrating in the integument a larger quantity of carbon, the 
chief element of the fixed oils.* 

Dr. Prichard thinks that the liability of all the races to the same 
diseases is an evidence of identity of species. Everybody knows 
that some races are more liable than others to certain diseases. Tihe 
torpidity of the blacks under disease is well known to physicians who 
have practised much among them ; the Negroes are more exempt 
from nervous diseases and the yellow fever, but more subject to the 
" yaws.^'' If we regard all men of one species, simply because they 
have the same diseases, we shall have to include the monkeys, cows, 
horses, dogs, &c., in the human family, for they have consumption, 
vaccine disease, glanders, hydrophobia, &c. It is known that epi- 

* It has been ascertained, abundantly, in the East, (according to Dr. 
Allen, " on the Opium Trade,") that the effects of opium on the Negro and 
Indian appear rather on the digestive, circulating, and respiratory func- 
tions, than in the ccrel)ral and nervous sj'^stem ; in the whites and Mongo- 
lians, it acts more directly on the mind, though its efTecis on the body are 
not lessened ; this accords with the alleged inferior development or sensi- 
bility of the nervous system in the dark races. 



INTRODUCTION. Si 

demies have, from the earliest ages, equally affected men and ani- 
mals ; the causes, the symptoms, the pathology, the treatment, are 
the same in epidemics and epizootics. This shows, not that men are 
of one species, — if it does, animals belong to the same species as man, 
— but that men are of different species ; since some races are very 
liable to certain diseases from which others are almost exempt. 

Van Amringe considers that the relations between male and female 
point to specific distinctions in the human races. If we go back to the 
remotest historic period we find that the condition of woman has 
always been higher in proportion to civilization : the white races 
have always manifested a tendency to honor and esteem woman ; 
the dark races have always considered her rather as a slave than as 
a companion and equal. The prevalence of this rule in species, taken 
as a whole, from the earliest times and under all modifying influences, 
indicates a natural difference of mental constitution or temperament ; 
education has modified, but can never change it. The standard of 
beauty is different in the various races, physically, morally, and in- 
tellectually ; and this difference of taste has been one of the chief 
means of keeping distinct the different species of men. 



It was thought by Buffon, Hunter, and others, and is generally 
believed at the present day, that the offspring of two distinct species 
are incapable of reproducing their kind ; thus hybridity has been made 
a test of specific character. By some, hybrids are considered as 
affording the strongest proofs of the reality and distinctness of species ; 
by others, they are thought to show that all the present varieties of 
animal and vegetable life were derived from a comparatively few 
original types. Assuming it to be a law of nature that hybrids are 
sterile, it is maintained that all mankind must belong to one and the 
same species, since all the races are capable of producing a fertile 
progeny with each other. Dr. Morton* has examined this subject 
with great care, and has collected a great number of authentic facts 
of hybrids producing fertile offspring, in mammalia, birds, fishes, 
insects, and plants. In the higher animals, he gives examples even 
from different genera. In birds, they are very numerous, especially 
in the gallinaceous tribes. In plants, they are so common that Mr. 
Herbert maintains that botanical species are only a higher and more 
permanent type of varieties, and he would discard them altogether, 
retaining only the genera to designate those characters which have 
hitherto been attributed Jto species. It thus appears that mules are 

* Hybridity in Animals and Plants, considered in reference to the ques- 
tion of the Unity of the Human Species. By S. G. Morton, M. D. Phila- 
delphia. 



82 INTRODUCTION. 

not always sterile, even in a state of nature. Still, it must be 
observed that hybridity is much the most common among domesticated 
animals, and that the capacity for fertile hybridity is in proportion 
to the aptitude of animals for domestication. 

Dr. Bachman (as has been seen before) rejects the authorities of 
Dr. Morton, as unworthy of credit ; among which authorities are 
Buffon, Temminck, Hamilton Smith, Cuvier, Chevreul, &c. In 
subsequent articles* Dr. Morton gives additional reasons for his 
positions in regard to hybrids. Respecting hybrids of the sheep and 
goat, the facts of M. Chevreul were fully admitted by Buffon and 
Cuvier. The dogmatical assertion that the camels are both of one 
species, and the quoted authority of Buffon in support of it, merit 
no attention, since Buffon's opinion was founded solely on the fact 
that the camel and the dromedary produced a fertile offspring inter 
se. In Layard's plates of Nineveh are represented the camel and the 
dromedary as distinct as they are now ; this dates as far back as 
2600 years before Christ. There can be no doubt that the wolf 
and the dog copulate voluntarily, and that races have been formed 
in this manner- No one will probably pretend that all wolves 
are of one species, even though they maintain that the dogs 
are, and that the latter are the descendants of the former. Hy- 
brids between the horse and ass are well known to be sometimes 
prolific. As to hybrids in birds^ we need only mention the hybrid 
grouse, (Tetrao medius,) which is very generally admitted to be the 
mule-bird produced by the wood-grouse (T. urogallus) and the 
black grouse (T. tetrix). This is now the opinion of Temminck, 
who is " good authority" in ornithology; he confesses that he no 
longer regards it as a true species, in a work published ten years 
ago, though Dr. Bachman claimsTemminckasshowing the contrary. 

Great confusion has resulted from the habit of regarding hybrid- 
ity as a unit, whereas its facts may be classified like other 
series of physiological phenomena. Dr. Morton makes /bw degrees 
of hybridity. 1st. That in which the hybrids never reproduce, the 
mixed offspring ending with the first cross ; this is the case with 
almost all domesticated birds, however different their generic rela- 
tions. 2nd. That in which the hybrids are incapable of reproduction, 
inter se, but multiply by union with the parent stock ; this is the 
case with the species of the genus Bos. 3d. That in which animals 
of unquestionably distinct species produce a progeny prolific in^er «« ; 
as the wolf and dog, and other species of the genus canis. 4th. That 

* Letter to Rev, John Bachman, and Additional Observations on 
JHybridity in Animals. Ciiarleston, 1850. 



INTRODUCTION. 83* 

which takes place between closely proximate species, as among man- 
kind and the common domestic animals essential to his happiness. 

According to Mr. Eyton, (Proceedings of Zool. Soc, London, Feb. 
1837,) the offspring of the Chinese hog and the common European 
hog are prolific inter se ; now these animals differ from the wild 
boar, and the French hog, in the number of the vertebrae as follows : 
50, 55, 45, and 53. To say that these are all domestic varieties of 
one species is allowing too much to the semi-domestication of these 
animals. It is much less difficult to believe with Hamilton Smith (on 
Canidae) that this is " a case of providential arrangement for a given 
purpose, and that there are three, if not four, original species (includ- 
ing the African) with powers to commix." (p. 94.) 

The extent of the argument that can be drawn from the phenomena 
of hybridity as regards man, is (as Temminck has remarked of birds) 
" that the occurrence of the prolific offspring between the difterent 
races shows that there is a near affinity between the species." 



We shall conclude this abstract by a few remarks in favor of the 
diversity of the human races, drawn from various sources of modern 
date, expressing our own opinion from a careful study of the phenom- 
ena, and from personal observation. 

Those who maintain the one-pair theory deny the permanence of 
races, and place great stress upon the capacity for variation in 
animals, and therefore in man; and, when difficulties arise which 
cannot be explained by the usual causes, they invoke the aid of 
spontaneous variation and accidental generation. 

Allowing for the moment that civilization in man and domestica- 
tion in animals are analogous conditions, (which is of vital impor- 
tance to their theory,) let us see what can be established in regard 
to changes produced by climate and external influences. 

The capacity for variation is certainly great in our domestic ani- 
mals, submitted as they are to various unnatural circumstances. 

The most commonly used argument in this connection is fur- 
nished by the varieties of the dog, which are considered as belonging 
to one species. To say nothing, however, of the " petitio principii " 
here, in assuming the point wished to be proved, many eminent nat- 
uralists believe that there are several species of dogs. The objec- 
tion of F. Cuvier that, "if we begin to make species, we cannot 
stop short at five or six, but must go on indefinitely," is of no 
•weight ; the most it can do is to show us the exceedingly vague 
meaning of the word species, and that we have not yet arrived at 



M INTRODUCTION. 

the true distinction between species and variety. The " permanent 
variety" of Dr. Prichard, from his own definition, is to all intents 
and purposes " a species." Says Hamilton Smith, (Naturalist's 
Library : on Dogs,) no instance can be shown " in the whole circle 
of mammiferous animals, where the influence of man, by education 
and servitude, has been able to develop and combine faculties and 
anatomical forms so different and opposite as we see them in dif- 
ferent races of dogs, unless the typical species were first in pos- 
session of their rudiments." (p. 100.) Form and size may thus be 
somewhat changed, but climate cannot have effected much, as the 
two extremes are found in hot and cold regions. Food can do no 
more, since the man living on vegetables or fish retains his facul- 
ties as well as he who lives on flesh. Food or climate will not so 
widen or truncate the muzzle, nor raise the frontals, nor produce a 
light and slender structure, nor take away the sense of smell, and 
several other of the best qualifications of the dog, (as in grey- 
hounds.) These qualities we cannot but consider as indications of 
different types, whose combinable properties have enabled man to 
multiply several required species. Ask sportsmen and breeders, 
who are led by inferences from their own observations, and do not 
follow the authority of high names ; they will tell you the same. 
In absence, then, of positive proof, we have every reason to doubt 
that the differences of domestic dogs can be referred to a single spe- 
cies, and especially that the wolf is the parent stock. There are, 
indeed, several species of wolves, which might come in for a share 
of the paternity of the dogs, which would hardly be in favor of the 
latter being varieties of a single species, unless some one will ven- 
ture to point out the exact species of wolf. If it be said there 
is only one species of wolf, then it is useless to quote animal analo- 
gies, for there is no such thing as a species in animated nature ; and 
we might as well adopt Lamarck's or Monboddo's development the- 
ory at once, from which such views as are maintained respecting 
the varieties of dogs are not very distant. The influences which 
could change, without intermixture, the bull-dog into the greyhound, 
might well change a White into a Negro, or a monkey into a man. 
We must admit several aboriginal species, with faculties to intermix, 
including the wolf, dingo, jackal, buansu, anthus, &c., as parents of 
our dogs ; that even the dhole or a thous may have been the parent 
of the greyhound races ; and that a lost or undiscovered species, 
allied to Canis tricolor or Hyaena venatica, may have been the source 
of the short-muzzled, strong-jawed mastiffs. Smith, moreover, classes 
the dogs according to their apparent affinities with wild originals in 
neighboring latitudes, — the Arctic dogs with the wolves ; south of 



INTRODUCTION. 85 

the Equator there being no wolves, he refers the dogs in the Old 
World to the jackal, &c., in the New World to the Aguara fox dogs. 

We have been thus particular on the subject of the dogs, as 
they have been triumphantly appealed to as arguments in favor of 
the-unity of the human races ; they certainly show little positively 
in favor of this view, and much negatively against it. 

But, even among animals, there is a very great difference in their 
capacity for variation, which renders any argument that might be 
drawn from them of little value. The mouse, for instance, shows 
very little disposition to change, in color or form ; the brown rat of 
Persia, now spread over the world, very nearly preserves its original 
type. According to Dr. S. G. Morton, (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, 
Phil., April, 1850,) the reindeer of Lapland do not change in the 
slightest particular after long domestication ; the peacock has not 
varied for thousands of years. Some animals, in two or three gen- 
erations, are entirely changed in color, as the Guinea-pig and tur- 
key ; sometimes even the anatomical structure changes, as in the 
pigeon, sheep, and dog ; some animals, even in the ivild state, 
undergo great changes, e. g., the fox-squirrel, (Sciurus capistratus,) 
whose black variety is not to be confounded with the unchanging 
Sciurus niger. The tiger is the same in tint, under considerable 
variety of climate, from Siberia to Ceylon. In the province of 
Delhi, Bishop Heber saw a shaggy elephant ; he says that in one or 
two winters dogs, and even horses, brought from Europe, become 
woolly in that region, whose men are remarkable for the length and 
straightness of their hair. Dr. Morton also remarks that the wool 
of sheep becomes long and hairy in Guinea, where human hair is 
wiry and twisted. So that the causes which change the lower ani- 
mals, do not affect man. In this respect one animal is not an ana- 
logue even for another animal, still less is an animal an analogue for 
man. 

If the races of man are analogous to the varieties of animals, 
why does not he, under similar circumstances, tend to a uniform 
type 1 Why do not these varieties occur before our eyes among civ- 
ilized man, who has been called the most domestic of animals ? and 
the more frequently as civilization, with its many unnatural accom- 
paniments, makes progress ? The capacity for variation may explain 
temporary varieties of men and animals, but it cannot account for 
the permanent varieties, or species. 

The characteristics most relied on for the discrimination of the 

races are the color of the skin, the structure of the hair, and the 

conformation of the skull and skeleton. There are several evident 

types of these marks in the races ; the transition, however, is so 

8 



86 INTRODUCTION. 

gradual from one to the other, that it is impossible to draw the exact 
line of demarkation ; therefore, say the advocates of the one-pair 
theory, the varieties of man may belong- to one species. But we 
know that this same gradation is seen throughout the whole animal 
and vegetable world. 

There are many animals intermediate between the orders, families 
and genera of the Vertebrata, — between mammalia and birds, 
between birds and reptiles, between reptiles and fishes, both living 
and fossil — which require all the acuteness of the experienced nat- 
uralist to class exactly. Many flowers, known in their typical forms 
to belong to different species, can hardly be distinguished in their 
varieties ; the same plant has borne flowers formerly considered char- 
acteristic of three distinct genera. 

This will be rendered of more importance if it appear that the 
races are permanent, and that color is not dependent on climate. 
Seven hundred and thirty-three years after Noah's debarkation from 
the ark, (to follow the generally received chronology,) a nation of 
blacks occupied the borders of Egypt ; now, if these were Negroes, 
(as they doubtless were, for we have their features on the monu- 
ments,) for the last two thousand years climate has not produced 
such a race, as, according to this idea, must have been produced in a 
third of that time. Seventeen hundred years ago a colony of Jews 
migrated to the coast of Malabar, and settled among black races. 
Dr. Buchanan, in his travels, states that they are as perfect Caucasians 
as ever.* If, then, seventeen hundred years has not changed these 
people, in that hot climate, is it probable that seven hundred and 
thirty-three years have changed a white man into a Negro ? A 
Portuguese colony, which settled on the coast of Congo, has now 
become lost by amalgamation with the black races ; but, by a sup- 
pression of a part of the facts, the impression has been given that 
they were changed into Negroes by the effects of the climate, while 
the true cause of their extinction was the intermarriage of a few 
whites for fifteen generations among a large body of blacks. Yet 
this, and such as this, has been adduced as a proof that climate 
changes races. The Moors have inhabited Northern Africa from 
time immemorial, and yet they have made no approach to the Negro, 
any more than the Negro has to them. The American Indian, under 

* There are white Jews in Malabar ; where ihey are black, an intermix- 
ture with dark races may be traced. This fact is carefully kept out of 
sight by those who wish to use the " Black Jews of Malabar " on the other 
side of the question. [Dr. Nott ; Proceedings of Am. Association for 
Adv. of Science. Charleston, 1850. p. 98.] 



INTRODUCTION. 87 

every variety of climate, has very nearly the same shade of com- 
plexion ; no other races have been produced there ; there are no 
woolly heads, no Negro features. It is novv about two hundred 
years since Africans were introduced into this country, and the eighth 
generation, where they have not been mixed with the whites, are as 
purely African as their imported ancestors ; even in Massachusetts, 
where they have been somewhat improved by the most favorable cir- 
cumstances, the real characteristics of the race are unchanged. The 
Jews have been a permanent race, from Abraham to the present time, 
a period of nearly four thousand years, according to Hebrew chro- 
nology ; and, for still stronger reasons, from him up to Noah, only 
ten generations. The Gypsies are a permanent race, preserving their 
East Indian characteristics in all places, and for all historic time. 

It may, then, be fairly said, that unmixed races, from the most 
remote historical time, (nearly 4,000 years,) have preserved theij dis- 
tinguishing marks amid all the supposed causes of change, and may 
be considered permanent. The Ethiopian (Negro) can no more 
change his skin than can the leopard his spots. 

As examples of change of color in animals from external circum- 
stances, and as proofs that similar causes may have produced similar 
effects in man. Dr. Prichard mentions the black swine of Piedmont, 
the white ones of Normandy, and the red ones of Bavaria; and 
instances also of horses and dogs, in Hungary and Corsica. If 
physical changes so change the lower animals, in these countries, 
why do not they change man ? Why are the animals so different, 
and men so much alike 1 Man must be proof against these physical 
causes of change in animals. This is another instance of the abuse 
of analogy. 

We find, then, the same race occupying different regions, preserv- 
ing the same characters in all ; and different races in the same cli- 
mate, preserving unchanged their national distinctness ; and no instance 
can be produced of climate having changed, or now changing, one 
race into another. 

The quantity and structure of the human hair is very different in 
the different races. The Mongolians and Northern Asiatics are 
remarkable for the deficiency of hair and beard. The same is true, 
to a less degree, of the American Indians. Blumenbach would have 
us believe that the habit of pulling out the hair, continued for many 
generations, has at length produced this natural variety. Other nations 
have hair growing down the back, and covering nearly the whole body. 
This, probably, he would explain by the long continued application 
of some rude " Philocome," or " Tricophorus." On this principle, 
we should hardly expect that Chinese mothers would bear children 



88 INTRODUCTION. 

having- feet of the usual European dimensions. A^ery remarkable 
heads of hair are frequently produced by the intermixture of different 
races, as in the Cafusos of Brazil, — half-breeds between the Negro 
and Indians, — and in the Papuas. The microscope has proved that 
only those kinds of human hair which are straight approximate 
to the cylindrical form ; and that the curled or crisp varieties are 
more or less flattened, the crispation being in proportion to the com- 
pression. Even the straightest hair is not exactly round, and in 
some cases a little longitudinal groove may be seen. The hair of 
the Negro has a deeper groove, and its transverse section has been 
compared to the form of a hean. It is probable that the twist of 
the Negro hair is connected with a greater tension of the fibres 
along this groove, as each hair is an assemblage of innumerable 
minute parallel fibres. The hair of the Bushman is more minutely 
curled and closely matted than the Negro hair ; and under the micro- 
scope appears quite flat and ribbon-like, four or five times as broad as 
it is thick ; with no groove, but very delicate parallel striae or 
fibres. 

Mr. P. A. Browne, of Philadelphia, has communicated to the 
American Ethnological Society an Essay on " the classification of 
mankind by the hair and wool of their heads," in which he replies 
to Prichard's assertion that the covering of the head of the Negro is 
hair and not wool. He states that there are, on microscopic examina- 
tion, three prevailing forms of the transverse section of the filament, 
viz., the cylindrical, the oval, and the eccentrically elliptical. There 
are also three directions in which it pierces the epidermis. The 
straight and lank, the flowing or curled, and the crisped or frizzled, 
differ respectively as to the angle which the filament makes with the 
skin on leaving it. The cylindrical and oval pile has an oblique 
angle of inclination. The eccentrically elliptical pierces the epider- 
mis at right angles, and lies perpendicularly in the dermis. The 
hair of the white man is oval ; that of the Choctaw and some other 
American Indians is cylindrical ; that of the Negro is eccentrically 
elliptical or flat. The hair of the white man has, beside its cortex 
and intermediate fibres, a central canal which contains the coloring 
matter when present. The wool of the Negro has no central canal, 
and the coloring matter is diffused, when present, either throughout 
the cortex or the intermediate fibres. 

Hair, according to these observations, is more complex in its 
structure than wool. In hair the enveloping scales are comparatively 
few, with smooth surfaces, rounded at their points, and closely 
embracing the shaft. In wool they are numerous, rough, sharp- 
pointed, and project from the shaft. Hence the hair of the white 






INTRODUCTION. 89 

man will not felt. The hair of the Negro will, and in this respect 
comes near to true wool. 

Prichard says, supposing- the Negro hair to be analogous to wool, 
it would not prove the Negro of a separate race from the European. 
*' Since we know that some tribes of animals bear wool, while others 
of the same species are covered with hair." Though this peculiar- 
ity depends on climate, it proves nothing, for this reason, viz., in 
almost every quadruped there is a growth of both hair and ivool, the 
latter generally covered and protected by the former. Now, cli- 
mate only changes the relative proportion between these two append- 
ages to the skin. In a vmrm climate the hair would predominate ; 
in a cold country the wool would be the most increased. This may 
explain Prichard's remark. Until a similar coexistence of hair and 
wool can be shown in the human subject, there is not the slightest 
ground for analogical argument. 

From the examination of the human hair, it may be said that the 
degree of relationship of the races is no nearer than that of allied 
species among lower animals, even allowing much that false analogy 
claims. The hair of man belongs to the same epidermic tissues as 
the fur of quadrupeds, the feathers of birds, and the scales of fishes. 
The species of birds are in a great measure distinguished by the 
form, structure, and arrangement of the feathers. The scales oi fishes 
have such an intimate and unvarying relation to their other organs and 
systems, that Prof. Agassiz has been able to delineate accurately the 
form and structure of an extinct species from the examination of a 
single scale ; and the classification of these animals is chiefly made 
according to the structure of the scales. If such dijfFerences in animals 
constitute specific and even generic distinctions, why not, by analogy, 
in man? 

The osteology of the different races of men has been as yet very 
little studied, and offers a wide field for observations. The charac- 
teristic shape of the skull in different races has been already given, 
and need not be repeated. The distinctions are remarkable and 
permanent, and cannot be invalidated by the " scale of gradation," 
so often quoted, as this would apply with equal force to all animated 
nature. A prevailing form, a type, exists, and that is enough. A 
modification of the osseous system involves a modification of function, 
which may influence the whole system, and become of specific value. 
The chin, e. g., says Van Amringe, is apparently an unimportant 
part ; and yet a receding chin is almost always attended by a poorly 
developed cranium and inferior intellectual powers ; not that there 
can be traced the relation of cause and effect, but that, all organs 
being a part of a great whole, a deficiency of one is almost without 
8* 



90 INTRODUCTION. 

exception followed by the same consequences in the whole class of 
animals. The prominence of the chin (or its receding) is charac- 
teristic of races of men and animals, and is proportioned to the rank 
they hold in the scale of being. Again, the posterior portion of the 
OS calcis is longer in the Negro than in the European. This enables 
the muscles of the calf of the leg to act with better advantage on the 
foot, the lever being better from the length of the heel. Less mus- 
cular force is required for the movements of the foot on the leg, in 
walking, &c., and hence the constant comparative flatness of the 
Negro calf, the size of a muscle being proportioned to its exercise. 
In an animal this would be considered of specific value. According 
to Dr. Knox,* in the colored races the nerves of the limbs are one 
third less than in the Saxon of the same height. He quotes Tiede- 
mann as having informed him " that he had every reason to believe 
that the native Australian race differed in an extraordinary manner 
from the European ; that this is the case with the Hottentot and 
Bosjeman race has been long known." He says, the whole shape 
of the skeleton in the dark races differs from ours, as also " the 
forms of almost every muscle in the body." We have already seen 
the great diflerences in the shape of the pelvis in the different races, 
to which Drs. Vrolik and Weber paid great attention, in the belief 
that its shape must have some influence on the conformation of the 
foetal head. They discovered jTowr principal forms, corresponding to 
the cranial formation of the principal races. The oval form of the 
European, the round form of the American, the square form of the 
Mongolian, and the oblong form of the African races. The last 
shovving unmistakable signs of degradation, and an approach to the 
pelvis of the Si?nicB. 

It is highly probable that future investigations will detect other 
differences in the comparative osteology of the races, which will 
present strong claims to be regarded as specific distinctions. 

The diversity of the human races is by some attributed to acciden- 
tal varieties, from whom individuals, tribes, and nations have 
sprung. If mankind were originally white, the negroes must have 
arisen from such an accidental variety. This, according to Dr. 
Morton, is Prichard's latest view. It is a mere supposition ; for 
nobody ever saw or knew a Negro born as an accidental variety 
among Caucasian, Mongolian, or other races, where a very natural 
explanation could not be found for the mystery. Prichard, at one 
time, believed Adam was a Negro, 1st, from the changes of animals 
being from dark to light. 2d, from Albinoes occurring among 

*The Races of Men ; a Fragment. By Robert Kiiox, M. D. London, 
1850. 



INTRODUCTION. 91 

blacks, but never blacks among whites. 3d, from the dark races 
being better fitted for savage life than the whites. 4th, from the 
lowest actual races being akin to Negroes. In his " Physical His- 
tory of Man," he says, " The Melanic variety may be looked upon 
as the natural and original complexion of the human species." 

It is a general law of nature that deviations from the natural type, 
accidental or the product of disease, have a constant tendency to 
return to the original type. For Prichard's reasons, above given, 
the white races are not the progenitors of the black races ; and if 
the first races were black, we ought occasionally to find children of 
white parents born black, by reason of the natural tendency to return 
to the original type. The difficulty is the same in both theories. 
Again, all unnatural, accidental, or monstrous births, are either abso- 
lutely incapable of procreation, or they quickly die out, unless 
renewed by intermixture of the original stocks. This will be more 
fully treated when speaking of hybridity. It is equally vain to 
pretend that varieties were thus produced in early ages, before a 
crowded population existed to swallow them up, as would now be the 
case. No race of " hairy men" arose from Esau. To suppose 
that the sons of Noah had children, of exactly the colors required 
by this theory, who married women of a color exactly corresponding, 
is too great a demand on our credulity. To say, with Van Amringe, 
that the sons of Noah were changed by a miraculous interposition, 
so as to produce the varieties of man, is not allowable ; for no one 
has a right to suppose a miracle. 

Professor Agassiz instituted a series of experiments in 1850, 
which have a bearing on this point. He took a great number of 
rabbits, of every variety of color, and bred them together with great 
care ; the offspring were never intermediate in color between the 
parents, but were either exactly like one parent or the other, or 
showed a tendency to the gray color of the original wild stock. But 
take different species^ as the horse and the ass, and the offspring 
resembles neither parent, but is a mule, intermediate between the 
two. So, put black and white together, the child is neither black 
nor luhite, but a mulatto. The rare instances where children from 
such a union have been either perfectly black, or 'perfectly white, must 
be regarded as exceptions. So far as analogy can be trusted, the 
result of these observations shows that the human races are distinct 
species. 

In hybrids, animal and human, there is a tendency to return 
to the original stocks. There is reason to believe that hybrid- 
ity is, in man at least, a state of degeneration, and that the 
mongrel race must either keep itself up by continual mixture with 



92 INTRODUCTION. 

the original stocks, or it will become extinct by reverting to the 
original types, or by ceasing to be prolific. Nobody doubts that 
mixed offspring may be produced by intermarriage of different races. 
The Griquas, the Papuas, the Cafusos, and the mulattoes of the 
Americas, so elaborately described and enumerated by Prichard, 
only show the existence of such races ; and that the same causes 
which first produced them may continue to produce them. The 
point is, whether they would be perpetuated if strictly confined to 
intermarriages among themselves. It has been said, as the result 
of observation, that, when the descendants of mulattoes intermarry 
for a few generations, (without mixture of the primitive races,) 
the offspring either ceases to be prolific, or reverts towards the 
original stocks. The same is true, as far as has been observed, 
of the mixture of the white and red races. 

In the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences of Philadelphia, 
for April 22, 1851, is a communication from Dr. S. G. Morton, on 
the infrequency of mixed offspring between the European and Aus- 
tralian races. This well-known fact led the colonial government to 
official inquiries ; and to the result that in thirty-one districts, whose 
inhabitants were 15,000 in number, the half-breeds did not exceed 
200. Infanticide, disease, promiscuous intercourse, and the natural 
repugnance of races, would not explain the fact in Australia, when 
similar causes elsewhere are not followed by similar effects. " Is 
not," he asks, *' the real cause of the difference of race the disparity 
of primordial organization?" 

The strongest argument in favor of this is that no new variety 
of men has ever been thus formed and perpetuated by the mixture of 
races, though there has been no greater obstacle to the permanence 
of such races than of the existing pure races ; we have a right to 
believe such a permanent race impossible till the contrary is proved. 
This conclusion is strengthened by the well-known consequences of 
intermarriage of near relations in civilized communities ; every one 
conversant with the subject knows that scrofula, imbecility, and idiocy 
are to be traced to this intermixture as effects to their cause. His- 
tory abundantly shows that artificial breeds, mixed races of men (and 
animals) are never permanent and self-supporting ; they require sup- 
plies from the pure breeds, or they become extinct. Look at the 
Spanish conquerors of Mexico and Peru ; the " Mulatto " (which 
means a mixed race) arose from the mingling of European and 
Indian blood. The supply from Spain has ceased ; the native 
Indian continues, and upon him the Mulatto is forced ; thus the pop- 
ulation gradually returns to the aboriginal Indian type as in the days 
of Montezuma and the Incas. The same is true of the mixture of 



INTRODUCTION. 93 

the Portuguese and Indian in Brazil and other parts of South 
America ; as the foreign supply diminishes, the native blood pre- 
dominates, and the mixed race decays. In St. Domingo, the black 
race predominates, and under the present regime there is no proba- 
bility of any great supply of white blood to perpetuate the existing 
Mulattoes ; the mixed race is gradually giving way, and must 
become extinct, becoming merged in the black stock. 

The phenomena of hybridity, therefore, so far as they bear upon 
the question, rather go to prove that there are distinct species. 

Mr. Gallatin (Trans, of Amer. Ethnological Soc, Vol. i., p. 192) 
gives some facts which show that the agriculture of the American 
mound builders was of domestic origin ; their principal vegetable 
product was peculiar to America. He says, " We have here two 
leading facts, one positively ascertained, and the other generally 
admitted by those who have inquired into the subject, the importance 
of which has not, it seems to me, been adverted to. The first is that 
all the nutritious plants cultivated in the other hemisphere, and 
which are usually distinguished by the name of cereals, (millet, 
rice, wheat, rye, barley, oats,) were entirely unknown to the Ameri- 
cans. The second is that maize, which was the great and almost 
sole foundation of American agriculture, is exclusively of American 
origin, and was not known in the other hemisphere till after the dis- 
covery of America in the fifteenth century." 

If animals have had several distinct centres of creation, why has 
not man ? There are climates peculiarly suited to the varieties of 
man, as well as of animals. Tropical Africa is not adapted to the 
Caucasian constitution ; every colony has been wasted by sickness 
and death ; every expedition into the interior has been attended with 
a frightful mortality ; even at a long distance from the unhealthy 
coast our national vessels have suffered severely from the pestilen- 
tial fevers of Africa. Yet this is the native and the natural climate 
of the Negro, where he is as much at home as is the polar bear on 
the shores of Greenland, or the chimpanzee on the banks of the 
Gaboon. Look at the French colony even in extra-tropical Algeria; 
according to the reports of Marshal Bugeaud, and M. Baudin, the 
mortality among the troops is frightful ; the European population 
annually decreases by seventeen per thousand, and, but for the influx 
of emigrants, would become extinct in fifty years. The dominant 
foreign population of Egypt does not increase in numbers ; the 
aboriginal Copt still exists, biding his time. Look at the English 
in Hindostan and Australia. The former is held as a military pos- 
session ; but the European cannot work there, — he must employ the 
natives ; but for fresh arrivals t^e white man would soon be extinct ; 



94 INTRODUCTION. 

as it is, he comes home to die prematurely, with gold in his pockets, 
and disease in his liver. In Australia, the Englishman with diffi- 
culty rears his children ; he is in an unnatural climate, and must 
accordingly decay ; he cannot be naturalized there. Finally, let us 
glance at America. Says Dr. Knox (op. cit.), "Travel to the 
Antilles, and see the European struggling with existence, a prey to 
fever and dysentery, uneqiial to all labor, wasted and wan, finally 
perishing, and becoming rapidly extinct as a race, but for the con- 
stant influx of fresh European blood." In Hayti, Cuba, Jamaica, 
and the other islands, a black population is necessary to labor. The 
sickly European must yield the tropics to the black race ; he cannot 
fight against the climate. So will it be in our Southern States and 
Brazil ; white men cannot labor there ; the black man must be there, 
either as free or slave, so long as the Anglo-American or European 
resides there. Cut ojff fresh arrivals of whites from the north or 
from Europe, and, as in Hayti, the negro race will soon predomi- 
nate, and, "with the deepening color, will vanish civilization, the 
arts of peace, science, literature." Look even at the Northern 
States. Contrast the lean, lank, lackadaisical Yankee with the 
ruddy, round, and robust Englishman, his ancestor. Says Dr. 
Knox, with truth, " The ladies early lose their teeth ; in both sexes 
the adipose cellular cushion interposed between the skin and the 
aponeuroses and muscles disappears, or, at least, loses its adipose 
portion ; the muscles become stringy and show themselves ; the ten- 
dons appear on the surface ; symptoms of premature decay manifest 
themselves." These are warnings that the climate has not been 
made foi him, nor he for the climate. 

It may now be asked if the species of man were created equal. 
We speak not of individuals, but of races. Many Caucasians may 
be inferior to many Negroes, or Mongolians, or Malays, and many 
individuals of talent may be found among the dark races ; but they 
are acknowledged exceptions. The question is not whether a race 
may be improved, for that nobody doubts ; else were they not 
human ; but whether all have the same capability of being improved ; 
and what the races are naturally, and what is the standard of the 
species. 

History need not be very deeply consulted to convince one that 
the white races, without an exception, have attained a considerable 
degree of civilization and refinement ; and that the dark races have 
always stopped short at a considerably lower level. There must 
have been a time when the Caucasian was as ignorant and uncivil- 
ized as the American or the African ; all were once simple chil- 
dren of Nature, or while the formw have advanced, the latter have 



INTRODUCTION. 95 

degenerated from the original type of their species. Why have 
accidental circumstances always prevented the latter from rising, 
while they have only stimulated the former to higher attainment ? 
The whole mass of facts leads to the conclusion that the dark races 
are inferiorly organized, and cannot, to the same extent as the white 
races, understand the laws of Nature, and therefrom obtain an ever- 
increasing light and knowledge ; that they bear the stamp of their 
inferiority in their physical organization. 

The North American Indian bears a stamp of inferiority in his 
physical and mental constitution ; his nature shows a preponderance 
of the " vegetative element," as Guyot calls it; his temperament is 
lymphatic, cold, unsocial, insensible ; he is the man of the forest, 
sombre and sad. The results of the mixture of the White and Red 
races for two hundred years are well known. The Indian civiliza- 
tion has not advanced permanently, or of itself; they will not give 
up their wild life for the restraints of civilization ; they cannot, 
from their organization, be civilized. Like the wild animals of the 
forest, they retreat before the whites, contact with whom has nearly 
annihilated them as a race. Similar reflections arise in contem- 
plating the Negro races. Amalgamation of races will not mend the 
matter. The inferior race will gain, for a time, what the superior 
loses ; but return to one of the original types, or degeneration and 
final extinction, must sooner or later be the result. 

Physical geography teaches us that, of the two great elements 
of the earth, the water element and the land element, the latter is 
by far superior to the former in the animal and vegetable life to 
which it gives origin ; geology and palaeontology show us that this 
was true also in ancient ages. The oceanic climate corresponds to 
a Flora and a Fauna numerous in individuals, but scanty in species ; 
all the large animals are wanting ; the types are inferior. In the 
continental climate there is greater variety, more numerous species, 
and higher types of life. But the highest of all life belongs to what 
Guyot * calls the maritime climate, the combination of the conti- 
nental and the oceanic. To use his words, " Here are allied the 
continental vigor, and the oceanic softness, in a fortunate union, 
mutually tempering each other. Here the development is more 
intense, life more rich, more varied in all its forms." In like man- 
ner, we find the highest human types neither among the indolent 
man of the Pacific, nor among the energetic Negro of continental 
Africa, but in maritime man wherever found ; whether it be in 
peninsular Europe, Asia, or North America, " enthroned, queen- 

♦ Earth and Man: by Arnold Guyot. Boston, 1850. 



96 INTRODUCTION. 

like, upon the two great oceans," " the mediator between the two 
extremities of the world." Physical geography also teaches, what 
history confirms, that the three great northern continents are pecu- 
liarly organized for the full development of man ; they may be 
styled the historic continents, each having a special function in his 
education, and corresponding to the periods of his progress. Of 
the white race, the most perfect type of humanity. Western Asia 
may be called the cradle, both physically and morally ; the dwelling- 
place of the chosen people, from whom Christianity was to spread 
over the earth. Europe " is the school where his youth was trained, 
where he waxed in strength and knowledge, and grew to a man.^'' 
"America is the theatre of his activity during manhood; the land 
where he applies and practises all he has learned, and brings into 
action all the forces he has acquired." 

The precise period of man's appearance on the earth is not 
known, as authors very variously interpret the Jewish and other 
chronologies. It is not improbable that the generally received 
opinion on the subject falls short of the truth, and that man has 
lived upon the earth for a longer period than 6000 years. 



Since the above was written, there has been published a valuable 
work, by Mr. Schoolcraft,* from which we quote a few paragraphs. 

The languages of the Indians " have been pronounced, on very 
slender materials, to contain high refinements in forms of expres- 
sion ; an opinion which there is reason to believe requires great 
modifications, however terse and beautiful the languages are in their 
power of combination. The aboriginal archaeology has fallen under 
a somewhat similar spirit of misapprehension and predisposition to 
exaggeration. The antiquities of the United States are the antiqui- 
ties of barbarism, and not /)f ancient civilization. Mere age they 
undoubtedly have ; but when we look about our magnificent forests 
and fertile valleys for ancient relics of the traces of the plough, the 
compass, the pen, and the chisel, it must require a heated imagina- 
tion to perceive much, if anything at all, beyond the hunter state of 
arts, as it existed at the respective eras of the Scandinavian and 

* Historical and Statistical Information, respecting tbe History, Con- 
dition, and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States. By 
Henry R. Schoolcraft, LL. D. Philadelphia: 1851. 



INTRODtrcTION. 97 

Columbian discoveries." He also says, that the antiquities of the 
Mississippi valley do not denote a high state of civilization in the 
aborig^inal race, before the arrival of Europeans ; the ruins of Palen- 
que, Cuzco, Yucatan, and the Valley of Mexico, are, manifestly, 
monuments of intrusive nations. 

The Scandinavians had visited the northern part of this continent, 
from Greenland, as early as the beginning- of the tenth century ; and 
even in the ninth we are told that Othere proceeded on a voyage to 
the North Pole. 

The Indian race is of a very old stock, apparently more ancient 
than the cuneiform and Nilotic inscriptions, the oldest in the world. 
" Nothing that we have, in the shape of books, is ancient enough to 
recall the period of his origin but the sacred oracles. If we appeal 
to these, a probable prototype may be recognized in that branch of 
the race which may be called Almogic (from Almodad, the son of 
Joktan), a branch of the Eber-ites. * * * * Like them, they are 
depicted, at all periods of their history, as strongly self-willed, 
exclusive in their type of individuality, heedless, heady, impractica- 
ble, impatient of reproof or instruction, and strongly bent on the 
various forms of ancient idolatry. Such are, indeed, the traits of 
the American tribes." They believe in a spirit of good and a spirit 
of evil. This duality of gods is universal. They relate, generally, 
that there was an ancient deluge, which covered the earth, and 
destroyed mankind, except a limited number ; they speak emphati- 
cally of a future state, and appear to have an idea of rewards and 
punishments hereafter. 

The whole Indian population of the United States he estimates 
at 388,229, with, perhaps, 25 or 35,000 more in the unexplored 
territories. 

Mr. Squier * remarks that the ancient population of the Missis- 
sippi valley was numerous and widely spread, as evinced by the 
number and magnitude of the ancient monuments, and the extensive 
range of their occurrence. " That it was essentially homogeneous, 
in customs, habits, religion, and government, seems very well sus- 
tained by the great uniformity which the ancient remains display, 
not only as regards position and form, but in respect, also, to those 
minor particulars, which, not less than more obvious and imposing 
features, assist us in arriving at correct conclusions." * * * * 
" The features common to all are elementary, and identify them as 
appertaining to a single grand system, owing its origin to a family 

* Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley. By E. G. Squier, 
A. M., and E. H. Davis, M. D. Washington: 1848. 

9 



98 INTRODUCTION. 

of men, moving in the same general direction, acting under common 
impulses, and influenced by similar causes. 

He thinks the present condition of our knowledge on this subject 
indicates a connection between the builders of the mounds and the 
half-civilized nations of Mexico, Central America, and Peni, whose 
vast and imposing structures invest this part of the continent " with 
an interest not less absorbing than that which attaches to the valley 
of the Nile." The mound builders, like the last-mentioned nations, 
were, to a considerable extent, stationary and agricultural in their 
habits, — " conditions indispensable to large population, to fixedness 
of institutions, and to any considerable advance in the economical or 
ennobling arts." 

While it is impossible to fix accurately the date of the ancient 
monuments, many facts enable us to judge approximately. None of 
these monuments occur upon the latest-formed terraces of the river 
valleys of Ohio. We are warranted in believing that these terraces 
mark the degrees of subsidence of the rivers, and one of the four 
which can now be traced must have been formed since these rivers 
have followed their present courses. " There is no good reason for 
supposing that the mound builders would have avoided building upon 
that terrace, while they erected their works promiscuously upon all 
the others." He adds, " The time since the streams have flowed in 
their present courses may be divided into four periods, of different 
lengths, of which the latest, supposed to have elapsed since the race 
of the mounds flourished, is much the longest." 

The primitive forests which cover these mounds are in no way 
distinguishable from those which surround them. Some of the 
trees of these forests have a positive antiquity of 6 or 800 years. 
The process by which nature restores the forest to its original state, 
after being once cleared, is extremely slow. Without attempting 
to assign a definite period for such an assimilation, he says, " it 
must, unquestionably, however, be measured by centuries." 

S. K. 

Boston, 1851. 



NATUEAL HISTORY 



OF 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



To investigate the History of Man, upon zoological princi- 
ples, and to apply them to the phases of his earliest available 
historical aspects, requires extensive researches, in a multitude 
of directions, — physiological, linguistic, religious, traditional, 
geographical, and migratorial, — for it is by their mutual com- 
parison that light is thrown on many points, which, without 
these means, would remain entirely unknown. While the 
first takes cognizance of every question relating to man's 
organization, and the position he holds in the scale of being, 
according to the laws which should guide all systematic 
researches in animated nature, the second, being a faculty 
appertaining solely to mankind, inquires into the grammatical 
structure and the sounds of oral communication, and traces 
out the families of languages, by means of which the more 
remote origin, connection, and filiation of different tribes is 
made apparent ; and it establishes, in proportion as the simi- 
larity of tongues or dialects is more complete, the degree of,, 
affinity they should bear, without entirely dismissing from the 
question the fact, that nations at times adopt a new language, 
to the total extinction of the tongue spoken by their ancestors. 
It is in cases of this kind that the records of national super- 
stitions, legends, manners, and even proverbs, become, in their 
turn, elements of interest, to guide and correct the research. 
Finally, when to these are added the ancient migrations which 



100 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

the different families of man have passed through, under the 
various conditions imposed upon them by geographical neces- 
sities, conclusions, more or less satisfactory, may be drawn, 
even where, as yet, little or no positive historical information 
is available, to substantiate them by direct reference to written 
authority. 

When, however, we endeavor to ascend up to the primeval 
period of man's creation, and the distribution of his species on 
the surface of the earth, the resources already pointed out will 
be found insufficient without the aid of geology, particularly 
when on the subject of the tertiary and alluvial strata, which 
contain organic remains of vertebrata ; and, most of all, when 
these are found to be of mammalia, whose orders and genera, 
— nay, species, — are still existing in the same localities, or 
in a more remote climate ; because it is in the same deposits 
of bones that the remains of man occur, though rarely; and 
their character and race is the subject of dispute. 

From the point of view wherein we propose to examine the 
natural history of mankind, it will, perhaps, be found, like 
geology, not w^hoUy free from arguments that, to some, may 
appear hazarded. In this class of researches, notwithstanding 
the positive nature of a multiplicity of facts before us, while we 
endeavor to abide by what we deem to be the truth, it is not 
intended to push the inferences further than hypothetical 
results, by means of which the phenomena of nature are best 
explained, and deserve to become facts in science so far only 
as they are warranted by the completeness of demonstration. 
But as many points of research are, in their nature, not within 
the reach of every test, much must remain partially speculative, 
or possessed of that sole degree of probability which a compe- 
tent judge may be disposed to award, upon dispassionate reflec- 
tion, and the existing state of our knowledge. 

Man, being possessed of the highest privileges and endow- 
ments in the whole domain of zoology, becomes the ultimate 
standard of comparison to which all animated life is referred. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 101 

His location in systematic arrangement, and the various con- 
ditions, physiological and historical, connected with the species, 
are, therefore, a subject of the highest interest. His primeval 
position, the region selected, where history and science can 
trace his first habitation and development, deserve an attention 
which it does not seem to have as yet obtained ; for, by investi- 
gation in that quarter alone, a more correct estimate of the 
date of his era, anterior to the great superficial disturbances 
which have occurred on earth, can be arrived at. Hence is 
drawn the value of a ckar view of the facts belonging to the 
cavern and loam deposits of organic remains, without, as well 
as with, human bones, and the so-called petrified skeletons of 
man which have been detected on various occasions. Hence, 
also, the interest attached to the changes which have occurred 
on the earth's surface, because they may have had a para- 
mount influence on the primeval distribution of man, and con- 
stitute the only additional question which philosophical research 
can attach to the primordial history of the human species. At 
a later period, minor catastrophes, and the action of human 
passions, led to known migrations by sea, and to the progress 
of colonization by land. If the most remote were causes of the 
approximation of different species of man, or of the separation 
of the three great varieties of the human race, taken as a single 
species, the later were most certainly the source of the minor 
distinctions which do exist, both between nations of different 
types, and of the same original stem. 

Although the question of the unity of species, — that is, 
whether mankind is to be regarded as a genus, constituted of 
three or more species, or as only one, composed of as many or 
of a greater number of varieties, subdivided into races, — may 
never be positively decided, it will not the less remain an 
inquiry of intense interest to trace the several conditions, which, 
in zoology, are assumed to have a preponderating influence. 
Therefore, researches directed to the questions whether the 
differences of conformation are sufficient in their anatomical 
9^ 



102 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

and external characters, or the varying degrees of development 
of the intellectual faculties amount to a body of facts sufficient 
to come to a decision, are of the utmost importance. The 
laws prescribed, when similar questions are applied to the 
brute creation, we contend, should be equally imperative when 
relating to man in his zoological aspect ; and if no better argu- 
ment or more decisive fact can be adduced, than that axiom 
which declares that " fertile offspring constitutes the proof of 
identity of species," we may be permitted to reply, that as this 
maxim does not repose upon unexceptionable facts, it deserves 
to be held solely in the light of a criterion, more convenient in 
systematic classification than absolutely correct. So, again, in 
forming an estimate of the antiquity of organic remains, in 
juxtaposition with those of man, where the chemical and other 
conditions of the bones are the same as those of the mammalia 
they are found to accompany, they must be judged upon the 
same principles. 

With the foregoing elements in view, we desire to enter 
upon the chain of our researches, reminding the young reader 
that no transient facts, solitary examples, or even allusions to 
names of tribes, legendary or religious, are disposed of, without 
entering into further details ; but, from the necessity of remain- 
ing within the restrictions imposed upon us by the want of 
space, although many may be far from needing a known his- 
tory, or they occur merely as fictions, taken from physical 
realities, such as the mythologist, versed in the philosophy of 
early history, will immediately recognize, notwithstanding that 
they come upon him under the combinations of a fresh aspect. 
But where traces occur of great nations, and especially of those 
that have had, or still continue to have, a marked influence on 
human destinies, a certain extent of detail, we trust, will be 
justifiable. 

On questions of antiquity, involving periods of time, and on 
others which relate to the measurements of distance between 
geographical points, it may be well to bear in mind that the 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 108 

first, having no physical instrumentality, is liable to be con- 
tracted to within assumed chronological data, commencing at 
arbitrary epochs, not supported by researches in geology, and 
often appearing to be of insujSicient duration ; while the second, 
being based upon measures of length, either undefined, or vary- 
ing in difTerent places and times, are, from an innate propensity 
in the human mind to magnify the unknown, stated to be more 
than the reality. The purpose before us is, however, sufficiently 
attained, by taking given ages for the one, and approximation 
to true distances for the other. We can, by these means, 
notice a succession of epochs in the conditions of the earth's 
surface, each adapted to the existence of vertebrated animals, 
with, it appears, an atmospheric state, gradually more suited 
for mammalia, of certain orders and families, until it became 
fit for the reception of man, whose creation may have synchro- 
nized with the decay and subsequent disappearance of a great 
proportion of the most powerful and fierce species, organized to 
submit to some law of decreasing vitality, yet more than to a 
cataclystic destruction. 

Here, then, we have the heads of those preliminary consider- 
ations, which demand some notice of the gi'eat disturbances 
that have affected the earth's surface, since the tertiary period 
came into operation, and our present zoology started into being. 
Next will be found requisite a few details on the bone deposits 
before mentioned, by whatever agency they may have been 
formed ; for, as by the former, the primordial nations may have 
been forcibly scattered, so, by the latter, their actual existence 
in regions now separated by whole oceans, appear to be indi- 
cated. 



104 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



CHANGES ON THE EARTH'S SURFACE, SINCE THE COM- 
MENCEMENT OF THE PRESENT ZOOLOGICAL SYSTEM. 

The present superficial character of the earth may be a 
result of the combined action of sudden violent disruptions, 
and long durations of gradual disintegrations, either operat- 
ing as restorers of equipoises in the permanent laws of ne- 
cessity, or as conductors of the slow process of accumula- 
tions, which again prepare a great convulsion. Taking the 
newer pliocene, or second tertiary age, to be coincident with the 
mighty changes of sea and shore, when volcanic disturbances 
were still in active operation, and that convulsive state, which 
subsequent catastrophes, and the succession of ages, have, as 
yet, only reduced in number, and moderated in force, when 
first a congenial atmosphere had begun to prevail, we have an 
epoch which would include the Mosaic deluge, and terminate 
with that greatest of all recorded destructions, — one, moreover, 
supported by innumerable historical confirmations, although 
some of these may be attributed to subsequent periods, and to 
distinct calamities, such as the bursting of the barriers of great 
mountain lakes, and irruptions of the sea ; for these being con- 
founded, in so many and remote quarters, with one great over- 
whelming event, it is natural that the reminiscence should be 
common to every region of the world. All these, whether sud- 
den or slow disintegrations of portions of the earth, it cannot 
be doubted, must have had material influence on the distribu- 
tion of races and human development. It is, indeed, chiefly by 
the agency of these changes, — by the insulation of parts of 
continents, resulting from submersions ; and, again, by the 
expansion or rising of the submarine floor, whereon islands 
may have stood, till they united into continents, — that many 
of the phenomena of zoological distribution can be best 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 105 

explained ; and if this observation is accepted with respect to 
brute mammalia, it surely implies that man, at least in some 
degree, may have had to encounter similar contingencies. 

In order to appreciate the great changes proved, or asserted 
to have occurred, let us take a short review of those which are 
the most prominent in the physical history of the earth. 



ASIA. 

Asia, apparently the most ancient integral continent of the 
earth, it may be surmised, is held aloft by the agency of great 
subterrene volcanic trunks, whose direction is externally mani- 
fested by the huge mountain range, which, passing longitudi- 
nally from east to west, nearly beneath its centre, forms the gen- 
eral water shed to the south and to the north, and constitutes the 
hinge, the axis of nutation, to the whole of both its planes towards 
the two oceans. In the east, the chain forms two or more paral- 
lel ridges, widening until an elevated table-land, of prodigious 
extent, is included between them. This 'plateau forms, chiefly, 
the Gobi desert ; its northern boundary consisting of the Altaic 
chain facing Siberia, and the southern, overlooking the great 
peninsula of India, contains, in the Himalaya system, the 
highest mountains of the world.^ To the westward, it is con- 
tinued by the Hindu Koh, which is the real Caucasus, and 
perhaps the Paropamissus of the ancients. Further on, the 
chain of Elburs overhangs the southern shore of the Caspian ; 
then succeeds Western Caucasus, and the mountain groups of 
Asia Minor and the Crimea, anciently known by the names of 
Taurus and Tauris ; this, crossing the Hellespont about Con- 

* That this lofty chain was hove up at a much more remote period, is 
sufficiently proved by the presence of banks of oyster shells, discovered 
by Dr. Gerrard at 16,000 feet above the level of the sea ; and in Thibet, 
shells fallen from cliffs, still higher, were taken up at the height of 
17,000 feet. In Asia Minor, oyster beds are not more than 3000 feet 
above the sea. 



106 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

stantinople, joins the Balkan to the Illyrian range, and, with 
broken intervals, passes to the Carpathian and Alpine systems, 
terminating in the Pyrenees ; and that, recommencing west of 
the Sea of Azoph, proceeds north to the Euxine, forming the 
Cymbric Chersonesus. 

From the culminating points of this central region to the 
shores of every sea, we find traditions, historical records, and 
demonstrated facts, attesting changes of surface and of level 
truly appalling, — several of them having been converted, from 
physical realities, into mythological fictions. In the north, the 
Arctic shore has been for ages in a constant rising progress. 
Whole regions have been submerged on the south and east of 
Asia, particularly between the coasts of Malabar and Ceylon ; 
and, again, vast provinces have disappeared in the Chinese and 
Japan Seas. 

Already, in remote times, volcanic activity, manifested by 
upheaving of the earth, relieved the elevated valleys of their 
lakes, — such as those of Cashmeer and of Nepaul, — both 
events being recorded in the traditions of the people. That of 
the western Gobi escaped by the upper Irtish, and the lake of 
Balcach was, most likely, absorbed or percolated through the 
sand in the same direction. In the present era, percussions 
continue to be frequent in Affghanistan and Caubul, sometimes 
destroying houses and whole cities, with many human lives ; 
and they are still more abundant and violent on the east side, 
where the mountains dip into the northern Pacific, to rise again 
and produce desolation in Japan. 

A diluvian convulsion evidently occurred during the present 
zoology. It passed over Western Asia, from south to north, 
affecting the Arctic coast, and snapping a portion of the cardi- 
nating mountain ridge, it caused the surface of the earth to 
sink below the level of any known dry land, excepting the 
basin of the Dead Sea ; thus the Caspian formed an abyss ; the 
Aral lake, and, further west, perhaps the Euxine Sea shared the 
same convulsion ; for all have the greatest depth of water on 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 107 

the south side, close upon the most elevated shores, where vol-, 
canic detonations are still constantly felt. Notwithstanding 
the quiescent state of the high sandy plateau of Persia, the fre- 
quency of naphtha springs, some boiling, others in actual flame, 
with constant smaller eruptions along the northern coast, and in 
other parts of the kingdom, attest the presence of numerous 
ramifications of active fires, once sufficiently powerful to form 
lofty mountain peaks, whose summits, such as Elburs and 
Demavend, show by their craters, now extinct or inactive, the 
vast extent and force of the disturbing agency, — perhaps still 
better exemplified in the high cones of Ararat, the loftiest of 
which recently fell in, and proved this mountain to be also of 
volcanic origin, cruinbling in decay. 



SOUTH OF ASIA. 
Turning our attention to the south coast, at the Persian 
Gulf, we find the high rocks of Laxistan and Mekran border- 
ing on a deep-water sea, belted with narrow shores, — thus 
bearing tokens of subsidence ; for though ReesV.eer, not an 
ancient place, was abandoned in the seventeenth century, on 
account of the encroachments of the water, Busheer, built in 
its stead, is already so low that, during certain winds, the 
whole town is surrounded by the flood. 



THE INDUS. 

Beyond Cape Monze (Eas Moaree), the terminal point of 
the Lukkee mountains, which form the western boundary of 
the Indus, we have the great delta of that mighty river. From 
the point where the stream escapes through the high lands, 
and now pursues a course almost due south, there are abun- 
dant tokens that originally it flowed nearly south-east, receiv- 
ing the tributaries of the Punjaub, nearer their sources, and 
reaching the Indian Ocean as far eastward as the Rhunn and 



108 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Gulf of Cutch, or even of Cambay. But, in a succession of 
ages, it has either filled a region of little depth ; or, by a con- 
stant erosion of the western banks, from longitude 76, the bed 
of the river has worked westward to 67° 10", over a space of 
nearly ten degrees. Perhaps allusion is made to the great 
changes in the direction of the waters of North-Western India, 
in the pretty mythological tale, anciently composed on the 
table land of Ommurkuntur; and relating the amours and 
jealous quarrel of the Nerbudda with the Burraet, whoise 
sources are not far asunder; while the course of the first is 
westward, that of the latter turns east to join the Jumna. 

In common with other great rivers of low latitudes, whose 
course, unconfined by rocky chains, is obliquely to or from the 
equator, the Indus obeys a law, probably in consequence of the 
earth's daily rotation, which impels the current of the stream 
constantly to abrade its western bank, and to forsake eastern 
channels ; so also, in Arctic regions, it causes floating ice ever 
to drift westward, and io pack against all coasts facing the 
mornino- sun. The same results still occur; the current, now 
in contact ^Ti'th the Lukkee hills, finds them an ineffectual 
barrier ; for, being gravelly, they are daily undermined, and, 
at Sehwun, the face of the rock is mcessantly carried away. 
Even the road by which Lord Keene's army passed round its 
foot was so entirely swept away by the next following freshets, 
that, in a twelvemonth after, boats sailed in deep water over 
the very spot. 

In the first ages of the present geological disposition of the 
earth's strata, the whole space below the Punjaub may be 
deemed to have been a shallow sea, which the enormous 
deposits of the river constantly tended to fill up, and the surf 
threw back in the form of sand and gravel, until the whole 
space was filled, down to the edge of deep water, where the 
currents generated by the monsoons first had power to act; 
then the present delta, which began higher up, was finally 
checked or reduced to very gradual additions. Nor is this 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 109 

supposition visionary. What the daily deposits can produce, 
in a course of ages, may be inferred from Dr, Lord's calcula- 
tion ; for he, assuming the discharge of the river to be three 
hundred cubic feet of mud per second, maintains it as equal 
to form, in seven months, an island forty-two miles in length 
by twenty-seven in breadth, and forty feet in depth ; which, 
though the remaining five months may not continue an equal 
daily deposit brought down from high Asia, even with the 
allowance that a considerable exaggeration may exist in the 
estimated quantities, is, nevertheless, sufficient to have replen- 
ished a gulf of shoal water, of enormous extent, in a few cen- 
turies. Proportionably as the current shifted to the westward, 
the monsoon winds filled up the abandoned beds of the stream 
with drift sand, leaving only those of former affluents to con- 
tinue their course, and the plain to become a desert of sand, 
formed in ridges, sometimes of a considerable height ; for the 
coasts of France, Holland, and of the Baltic near Dantzig, 
demonstrate that the surf and winds can elevate them to 
more than eighty feet, without a single ingredient in their 
mass to give them real stability. Such is the desert of the 
Indus from above the junction of the Sutlege (Hyphasis), the 
lowest of the Punjaub rivers, to the sea-shore of the delta, 
where Cutch, once a great island, is now a part of the conti- 
nent. In this vicinity, so late as 1819, a vast surface of sand 
suddenly sunk down, upon which a stream of the Indus came 
towards Luckput by an ancient and forsaken channel from 
Hyderabad (Pattala?) to Bahmanabad, and filled the depressed 
soil in the form of a shallow lake, now called Ullahbund ; and 
many smaller lagoons of similar origin, mere water deposits, 
are still dispersed on the plains eastward beyond Jeysulmair, 
to the Hoony river in Malwah.^ 

* By information very recently received, it appears that a second sub- 
mersion, greater than the Ullahbund, has taken place during the present 
summer (1845), offering a further confirmation of the theory above 
advanced. 

10 



110 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Proceeding to the opposite coast of the Gulf of Cutch, we 
arrive at the island of Bate, or ancient Chunkodwar, renowned 
in the legends of India for the demon Haiagrieva concealing 
the Vedas in a conch shell; and then, on the furthest point of 
Gujrat, observe Cape Juggeth, at a distance appearing like a 
stranded ark, or wrecked ship. Here is a celebrated pagoda, 
connected with diluvian legends, for on this coast was 
Dwaraca, now represented by Mhadapore, " before the ocean 
broke in upon the land ;" and it is still pretended that the 
annual mysterious bird makes its appearance, as it did in the 
time of Alexander. Inland the elevated Ghauts appear with 
but an insignificant breadth of plain at their base, continuing 
from Surat to Cape Comorin, in other respects destitute of 
indications of importarft changes ; but when this most southern 
extremity of the peninsula is turned, the sea between the 
mainland and the island of Ceylon is found to be of inconsid- 
erable depth, particularly in the Gulf of Manaar, abounding in 
the pearl oyster ; and, from the long and narrow island of that 
name, on the Ceylon side, a shoal, impassable to ships of bur- 
then, extends across the intervening space to Eamiseram, a 
similar low and lengthy island, which almost joins a point of 
land, projecting far out from the coast of the Carnatic. This 
shoal, based perhaps upon a natural dyke of rock, is the cele- 
brated Adam's Bridge of geographers ; and, at the time of the 
first European navigators, still retained several islands above 
water.^ Both Manaar and Ramiseram are decorated with 
temples, and the whole region, on either side, is redolent of 

*The channels have shoaled up to a little more than four feet of water, 
as we were informed by the late Major Rennell, who had surveyed the 
vicinity, since the French Admiral, Suffrein, about the years 1780-81, 
caused vessels to be sunk in them, from an apprehension that English 
forces might pass through these gaps, along the Indian shores, without 
his knowledge, and avoid going round the south side of Ceylon. Though 
at certain seasons there is a strong current in the channels, it is likely 
that the usual tides meet at the bridge, for the lagoons are everywhere 
filling up. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. Ill 

mythological legends of the most remote antiquity. The sea, 
in particular that portion to the north and east of the bridge, 
denominated the Palk Strait, is the recorded space of a great 
diluvian submersion, leaving, on the Ceylon side, evidence of 
the fact, in the cluster of Jafnapatam islands, and innumerable 
lakes and ponds on the Carnatic side, which partly recovered 
from the inundation. The space of land submerged, extended 
from longitude 9° to 10° 20" north, and from 79° to 80° 15" 
east — above 3600 square miles, where mankind, as it appears, 
was both a witness and a sufferer. Whether this particular 
calamity was one of many postdiluvian events, resulting from 
a return to equipoises, after a great convulsion in nature, or 
whether it was in connection with the upheaving of Northern 
Asia, must be mere conjecture, though it is certain that the 
south coast for ages after, and even now, tends to continued 
depression. 



CEYLON. 

But Ceylon, the Lanka, Sinhala, Dwipa, Taprobana, and 
Salice, &c., of ancient classics, of the Hindoo and early Ara- 
bian writers, as well as in the traditions of Southern and 
Western Asia, and even in the opinion of a great modern 
geologist, was the primeval abode of man, whose first station on 
earth lay in the basin of Candy, girt round with high preci- 
pices, where the Ma vela Gonga rises from beneath the 
summit of Mali or Hamateel, better known in Europe by the 
name of Adam's Peak. This cone, though not the most 
lofty in the island, rises to 7720 feet, and is seen, far out at 
sea, towering over the high-girt vale, which, flourishing 
in vegetation, may well have suggested an idea of Para- 
dise. On the highest summit there is one of those manu- 
factured impressions of human feet, which imposture repre- 
sents to be of Adam or of Budha, and belongs to a very 



112 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

early period^ There can be no doubt of the remote civiliza- 
tion of Ceylon, and the ruins of enormous cities, such as 
Palaesimundus (Arrian), Amuragramma, Coodramalli on the 
pearl coast, and the innumerable artificial tanks, certainly 
prove an enormous and industrious population to have once 
flourished on the island. 

Although Arabian legends of Ceylon have an air of the 
greatest antiquity, it is from Hindoo traditions, both in the 
island and on the main coast, that the mythological appropria- 
tions of the local submersion are confounded with the Mosaic 
or general deluge of history ; nevertheless, a separate record of 
the scriptural event may be traced coming from a western 
source, first distinctly announced at the pagoda of Juggeth, 
before mentioned ; and from thence passing onwards, more and 
more distorted, till every circumstance is obliterated, in fanci- 
ful tales, at the black pagoda of Juggernaut.^ 

On the coast of the Carnatic, eastward to the Bay of Bengal, 
where several considerable rivers incessantly pour down their 
tributes of earthy deposit, not only no perceptible extension of 
the low coast is discernible, but abrasion by surf, and occasional 
great sea waves, indicate progressive depression. All the 
streams are barred, and in deep water the currents are violent ; 
thus, in 1793, the settlement of Coringa, near the mouth of the 
Cawvery, was overflowed by three successive seas, with most 
of the lives, houses, and property swept away. The ruins of 
Mahabalipuram, at no great distance from thence, better known 
as the seven pagodas, once a great and superb city, demon- 
strate the sinking soil, by several of the temples being either 

* This was already an ancient practice in the ag'e of Herodotus. 
Before his time there were some dedicated to Osiris, in Upper Egypt ; 
one, ascribed to Hercules, was carved in rock, on the Danube ; others are 
still found referred to Budha, in Japan and China. Paducas are common 
in India. There is one to Moses in Sinai, to the Saviour at Jerusalem, to 
Abraham in Arabia, to Mohammed at Mecca, and to a variety of saints 
in Italy, France, and even Wales. 

t Consult Nearchus, Ptolemy, Kosmos, Knox, Upham, &c. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 113 

entirely, or already partially, in conflict with the waves. 
Annually, immense expense is incurred to defend Madras from 
the menacing sea ; and even the black pagoda, notorious for 
the inhuman religious practices in honor of Juggernaut, is 
threatened with a similar fate ; and Hindoo legends tell of a 
primeval temple now beneath the sands. 

THE GANGES. 

In the Bay of Bengal, where the Ganges is reported to dis- 
charge, per day, solid matter equal in cubic bulk to the great 
pyramid of Egypt, and the Sunderbunds or Calingas form a 
delta of immense breadth, no further extension is observed sea- 
ward ; but, according to Major Rennell, a vast surface of land, 
with the ancient city of Bengalla, once seated at the eastern- 
most branch of the river, has been submerged in deep water. 

Though the peninsula is perpetually disturbed by earth- 
quakes, Allahabad offers one of the few indications of volcanic 
action, above the surface, by the thermal waters, observed in a 
deep cave, where " the tree of Adam continues to bud ;" and 
beyond the Brahmaputra, a naphtha spring, in perpetual igni- 
tion, is held in veneration even in Thibet. 

AUSTRALASIA. 

On the east side of the Bay of Bengal, down to the 
extremity of further India, the shore, rich in alluvial deposits, 
brought down by the great rivers from Indo-China, repels the 
western monsoon, and maintains a powerful seaward vegeta- 
tion ; but where the Malay peninsula extends towards the great 
Australian islands, volcanic disturbances again become predom- 
inant, presenting, in their extent, above fifty craters in fearful 
activity. Disruption and submersion of what may have been 
a continent, a kind of counterpart to South America, may be 
surmised, by the shallowness of some parts of the sea, and the 
10# 



114 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

exceeding inequality of the submarine floor ; the islands, great 
and small, appearing like the subsisting ruins of a once united 
region, which the straits of Malacca, Sunda, Bali, the Sea of 
Banda, &c., have separated, from the effect of immense percus- 
sions, originating at a great depth. No small confirmation to 
this supposition is drawn from the frequent identity of the 
mammalia observed on the islands and the neighboring conti- 
nent ; in several cases, the species cannot, with any probability, 
be supposed to have been transported from one to the other, by 
human intervention. Some of these are Pachyderms, common 
to both, and others of the same order, of different species : such 
as, 1st. Large ruminants : The Banting, Bos leucoprymnus ? 
Rusa, or Cervus equinus, Elant of the Javanese Dutch. 2d. 
The Elephant? two or three species of Rhinoceros, a Tapir, 
and many more. In the distribution of zoological species, 
there is no other instance of great Pachyderms being confined 
to insulated locations, and none where the same species occur 
on two or more of them, and again on the mainland of the next 
continent. They offer, therefore, additional arguments in 
favor of the conclusion, that in the earlier period of the existing 
zoology, all these great islands formed part of the continent ; 
and that in one anterior to it, the connection extended to Aus- 
tralia, since fossil remains of great Proboscideans {Elephas 
angustidens ?) have already been discovered in that soil ; not- 
withstanding that the present mammalia, perhaps with the 
only exceptions of the dog and rat, (both imported species,) 
are entirely implacental, with fewer congeners on the Asiatic 
than on the American side of the southern hemisphere. These 
exceptions in the former direction, are chiefly confined to those 
islands, great and small, clustered together on the north of the 
Australasian group, and with more questionable connection, 
extending by New Guinea to the south-east, including several 
Archipelagos and New Caledonia, all notoriously encumbered 
with coral reefs, ever the certain indications of comparatively 
shoal waters, and by Torres Straits passing to Australia 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 115 

proper; for the strait which severs it from New Guinea is 
almost fordable in many parts, the ship channels being narrow 
and dangerous passes. The whole of the islands in question, 
from New Guinea to beyond the Solomon's group, bear a still 
greater appearance of cataclysis, not by division so much as by 
submersion. Beside the singular zoology already noticed, the 
equatorial islands are the habitation of Simiad(E, such as the 
Gibbons, (Hylobates,) or long-armed apes, and of two or three 
species of Pithecus, or Orang Outan, in stature as large as 
men, and in strength superior to eight or more, — of all the 
brute creation the genus which structurally approximates most 
to man, who, to the eastward and in Australia, is himself 
represented by Papua tribes, cannibals so low in the scale of 
humanity, that, were it not for the admixture of other blood, 
hopes of ameliorating their condition would appear illusory. 
They might be considered to form the centre of that antique 
population which alone occupied the southern hemisphere, 
before the diffusion of the bearded or Caucasian man ; a popu- 
lation primevally formed to breathe and multiply in the heated 
and moist atmosphere of tropical swamps and forests, at a 
period when the great Saurians and the now extinct Pachy- 
derms existed ; and that their native region, extending far east- 
ward in the Pacific, had in great part subsided, leaving the 
islands and their organic creation, the evident wreck of a 
former system of existence. 

EAST COAST OF ASIA. 

It is off the east coast of this part of Asia that the main 
ramification of galleries passes from Japan to the north, as far 
as Kamtschatka, and to the south by several trunks, beneath 
the Bonin, Sulphur, Marian, and Ladrone groups ; and again, 
by the Philippines, Banda, &c., become connected with the 
great equatorial centre of ignition in Java and the surrounding 
craters. Although Chinese history commences with their 



116 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

deified heroes, toiling to clear the upper provinces of lakes and 
marshes, the sea, particularly between the main coast and 
Formosa, by many geographical indications, supports the local 
tradition of submersions; such as Mauri Gasima, and other 
islands shown by the shoals, at the still remaining Piscadore 
and Bashee islets ; and the tale, notwithstanding a due allow- 
ance for the expert impostorship of the natives, seems con- 
firmed, by the fishermen's drag nets occasionally bringing to the 
surface a curiously colored porcelain, which the art, as now 
understood in the Celestial Empire, is unable to produce. The 
continent is separated from Formosa by a sea, we believe, always 
in soundings, the shores being bordered with a broad belt of sand, 
swamp, or sunken rock, generally indications of progressive 
denudations ; and both coasts are not unfrequently visited by 
calamitous overflowings. Since these lines were first written, 
(1845), if the foreign news may be credited, an event of this kind 
has again taken place on the maritime provinces and the Yellow 
Sea, the waters rising in the Gulf of Pechelee, to the destruction 
of several hundred thousand human lives, innumerable cattle, 
the loss of all the houses and provisions, and the total ruin of 
above sixteen millions of the population, who were driven to 
seek shelter and food in the upland provinces. Even admit- 
ting probable exaggeration in the report, it is an event far sur- 
passing the traditional deluges of Greece, or any other 
recorded in profane history. It is an occurrence that may 
boldly be claimed as a' proof of continued depression of the 
southern and eastern shores of Asia, and the oscillations pro- 
duced on the sea by submarine disturbance, which then, like a 
great tide wave, passes upon the land far above its usual 
limit. 

In Japan, volcanic convulsions have been unremitting, from 
periods anterior to the most ancient records of the nation ; for 
to them alone can be ascribed the repeated discoveries, at great 
depths, of jewels and manufactured objects, totally distinct 
from the present, and noticed by all the native literati as more 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 117 

ancient than the existing creation. On the line of volcanic 
agitation, south of Japan, and near a crater in constant activity 
is the island of Assumcion, (or Ascension,) one of the Marian 
group (?) — now, like many others of this and neighboring 
clusters, low and small : — here there was lately discovered, 
by the officers of H. M. Sloop Raven, the ruins of a city, still, 
it seems, known by the name of Tamen. It stands so far in 
the wash of the waves that a boat is necessary to land at the 
buildings, which are composed of very large blocks of stone, 
some being twenty feet in length. Other reports were subse- 
quently brought to Sydney, stating that one or two other cities 
of similar work, were extant on other islands, and equally sub- 
merged. One, indeed, seated on an island, named Pouznipete, 
or Seniavane, is mentioned by Mr. C. Darwin, in his volume 
on the structure and distribution of coral reefs, but he supposes 
it to be the same as the first mentioned.^ Tinian, however, is 
not far remote, and there, when Lord Anson landed, were 
found two parallel rows of squared upright stones, in the form 
of obelisks, each surmounted by a coping block, immediately 
recalling to mind the colossal pillar-idols of Easter Island, which 
are known to have been the work of a departed population, 
probably of the same race that once inhabited Pitcairn's, the 
late well-known retreat of the mutineers of the Bounty. These 
antique and now forsaken cities must have been constructed by 
a people totally distinct from the present inhabitants, and much 
more numerous than the existing locality could now supply 
with food. The group is entirely composed of volcanic cones, 
and of low coral reef islands ; and we agree with Mr. Darwin 
in opinion, that they are the remains of land once much greater 
in extent, but sunken beneath the sea's level, by the effect of 

* The most recent maps are unsatisfactory with reference to these 
islands; and, as both Mr. Darwin's account and our own were derived 
from the Sydney papers, it may be well to remain somewhat in doubt on 
the truth of the reports. We are obliged to that scientific observer for a 
note on this subject. 



118 NATURAL HISTOKY OF 

the excavations of igneous exhaustion. The population was 
once unquestionably organized in a social state ; it may have 
been a kind of Austral Pelasgian people, distinct from the pres- 
ent Jacalvas Biagoos, or Sea Gypsies, who always live on the 
water ; but that one has wandered, as navigators and workers 
in stone, across the whole breadth of the South Seas, is proved 
by the monuments left on the islands above-mentioned, not- 
withstanding the great distance they are asunder ; perhaps the 
builders of the great pyramids in some of the Australasian 
islands, — again repeated, under the name of Morais, in many 
of the South Sea groups, — the same who ultimately passed 
to the west coast of America, and introduced similar structures 
at Cholula and many other places ; models upon which the 
indigenous civilization of the New World was based and pro- 
gressing, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of international wars 
and conquests, until the arrival of the Spaniards laid the 
whole western fabric in the dust."^ 



ARCTIC ASIA. 

Behring's Strait is generally of a trifling depth, scarcely 
forty miles wide, having several denudated and abraded 
islands intervening ; and the coasts, in many parts, composed 
more of frozen earth than solid rock. As the water, with 
several shoals, is floored with fossil bones and shells, and there 
being no river of importance on either shore of the continents, 
or near, on the Arctic side, no great pressure can have come 
from the polar ocean; and, consequently, no great opening, if 
any, until the Arctic rising of Asia and Europe altered the 
relative conditions of the two seas. That once there was no 
current, may be inferred from the islands of New Siberia, and 
the vicinity being in part composed of ice, mixed with mammoth 
bones, tusks, and other organic remains; and the presence of 

* See Addenda. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 119 

several species of land mammals, common to both continents, 
attests a facility of passing from one to the other, and a pas- 
sage to have been effected by several of them on the ice. 

While the foregoing statements sufficiently demonstrate a 
continued declination of the south and east coasts of Asia, the 
case appears entirely reversed, from the lofty central mountain 
hinge northward to the shores facing the Arctic Sea. Chinese 
documents of remote antiquity report the land to have termi- 
nated at no great distance beyond the mountain chain of North- 
ern Tahtary;^^ skeletons of whales having been found 800 
miles inland, up the Lena. 

The enormous loads of debris which some rivers, amongst 
the largest in the world, incessantly pour forth from the 
great central chains of Asia, convert them, during the melt- 
ing of the snows, for a considerable period to the breadth 
of marine straits, and carry away hills, banks, and forests, in 
their course ; and constantly shift the soil in such a manner, 
that, speaking of a more elevated basin, Cochrane remarks : — 
" It is but twenty years since the present centre of the river 
Selinga was the centre of the city Selenginsk." The Obi, 

* According to the Chevalier Paravey, north-eastern Asia was still 
rising within the last two centuries. The shadow of a gnomon, set up in 
1260, by order of Kobi-lay, emperor of China, proves that the northern, 
coast then ranged between the 63d and 64th degrees of north latitude ; 
whereas, now it is above 70 degrees. — Memoir read at the Geographical 
Society, 8th Feb., 1841 ; see Biblioth. Orientale d'Herbelot, t. iv., p. 171 ; 
Hedenstroehm. M. Arago remarks that the ice has greatly accumu- 
lated in the Arctic seas within the latter centuries, and rendered navi- 
gation round the polar extremity of Nova Zemhla totally impracticable, 
although the foregoing travellers maintain that the cold in eastern Siberia 
decreases sensibly ; and this opinion is in perfect accordance with the 
gradual rising of the polar shore, for that must increase the power of the 
sun's rays very considerably, on the oblate spheroid surface of the Arctic 
Circle. Strahlenberg notices the entire hull of a keeled ship being found iu 
the Barabinsk, between six and seven hundred miles from the sea. Wran- 
gel observed drift-wood above the highest sea level, upwards of 50 veists 
inland, and other phenomena of risings of the surface. See Reise. 



120 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Jenissei, and Lena, all overflow to a vast extent, as was 
already remarked by Abulghazi ; and no doubt the deposits of 
so many streams contribute largely to the extension of the 
shores in the Arctic Circle; but the increase thus obtained 
cannot be of sufficient extent to account for the rapid progress 
of the land, even where the depth is inconsiderable, and little 
current exists. It militates against the conclusions of the most 
scientific travellers who have visited the localities ; among 
whom Strahlenberg, Pallas, and Humboldt stand conspicuous ; 
and is an opinion, moreover, that every new research tends to 
strengthen, and one in unison with the belief of all the barba- 
rous tribes that wander over those inhospitable regions. 



CASPIAN BASIN, AN ASIATIC MEDITERRANEAN. 

A GRADUAL upheaving of the Arctic shore, chiefly on the 
north-west of Tahtary, and also to the west of the Oural chain, 
can alone explain the general fact, which, in the north of 
Europe, is now fully established ; and furnishes, also, the best 
argument to account for the loss of that great inland sea which 
once spread over the low bed where now the Obi and Irtish 
flow united, covering the whole lower Ichim and Tobol, the 
Barabintz, Lake Aksakal, and the innumerable pools, sea 
sands, incrustations, and efflorescences of salt, and recent 
shells. It reached by the Aral to the Caspian, was further 
connected with the Black or Euxine Sea, at that period inun- 
dating a considerable proportion of Southern Russia, and unit- 
ing with the Baltic, had again open communication with the 
White Sea and the Arctic Ocean, both by the Gulf of Bothnia 
and by that of Finland.^ 

The Caspian Sea, by accurate measurements taken in 1844, 
is eighty-three and a half feet below the Mediterranean, or 
about sixty-five feet lower than the Sea of Azoph ; and Lake 

* See Addenda. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. • 121 

Aral, though higher, is still known to be below the levQl of the 
Euxine. Both are, with the exception of the Caucasian moun- 
tain system, and the Elburs chain, entirely surrounded by 
saline plains of hard clay, and low sandy steppes ; on the west, 
extended to the Sea of Azoph and the Euxine, and between 
the Kama, Don, Wolga, Jaik, Lake Aksakal, the lower Ichim, 
and the Amoo, covering a space of 18,000 square leagues. In 
addition to the inland seas already mentioned, on the south- 
east is the desert of Karakoum, or of black sand, estimated, 
alone, at 150 miles in length, by 100 in breadth, forming a 
plain without a tree, — the floor of an evaporated and perco- 
lated sea. 

With the exception of the Oulon-tag, the Ildiglis, and the 
low Monghogar hills, the surface extends north-eastward, with 
scarcely an undulation. It is studded, in all directions, with 
smaller lakes, sedgy pools, morasses, and temporary rivers, 
which now terminate in small water basins, or are lost in the 
sand; and the occasional more elevated spaces are always 
edged by water-worn indications. The vast lake, which for- 
merly covered a great space on the south of Khiva, in long. 
59°, lat. 41° 15", has disappeared, all but a few pools, where 
the whole region is intersected with vestiges of ancient canals 
of irrigation, now dried up. These show a second stage, or 
era, when the sea had departed, and rivers still flowed onwards 
to the Caspian. So, also, the Kirguise steppe, forming the 
northern portion of the depressed region, is composed of a cold 
clay, which, notwithstanding, was anciently productive of a 
remunerating income to the cultivator; but husbandry con- 
tinuing to be invaded by a black sea-sand, blown from the 
north, whole districts are now uninhabitable; and ruins of 
ancient farms, rendered desolate by a bed of this destroying 
substance, attest the progress and influence of the northern 
upheaving. The dust comes up from the Obi, and the results 
are comparatively recent, though their commencement must 
date back to a remote period. They were, no doubt, early, a 
11 



122 . NATURAL HISTORY OF 

cause of the destruction of the caravan trade, already on the 
decline during the Roman empire, and show that the efforts 
of Russia to revive it are unavailing, because, the course of the 
Oxus being changed, trade no longer reaches the Caspian by 
boats ; and, moreover, water becoming annually m.ore scarce, 
the nomad hordes of the desert, gradually deprived of cultiva- 
tion by the inroads of the sea-sand, and driven eastward by the 
want of that necessary element, are necessitated to live by 
rapine where the earth grants no subsistence.^ 

Rivers like the Jaxartes, now denominated the Syrderiah, or 
Syhoun, and the Oxus, since called Jeyhoun and Amou, 
which, according to the ancients, originally flowed more 
directly westward to the Caspian, are now turned into the 
Aral, — a result which changes in the plane of declivity alone 
could produce, although the fact has been repeatedly ascribed 
to the labors of a poor, idle, and scanty population, destitute of 
mechanical skill, and almost of property in the soil. The Jax- 
artes now reaches Lake Aral through a sedgy bed, filling the 
north-eastern angle with clusters of islands, successively pro- 
duced by the deposits bearing the same aquatic plants. The 
Tanghi-Deriah, said, anciently, to have constituted the Deltic 
branch of the Jaxartes, which discharged its waters into the 
Caspian, is reported to have been turned off by the Khokani- 
ans, who, dreading the Khiva robbers might plant colonies of 
their own people along the stream, raised a bank to cut off the 
current. Although great rivers are not to be thus turned from 
their natural course, the dry bed certainly exists. It is now 
overgrown with Anabasis ammodendronA 

* See Report to the Acad, des Sciences, Paris, by M. Hommaire Dehel, 
on the levels of the Caspian and Aral, and on the decrease of the Oxus 
and Volga. April, 1843. 

t We doubt this being the same as the Janderiah, which forsook its bed 
so late as 1816. Report of a Memoir by M. A. De Kanikoff, to the Geo- 
graphical Society of London, November, 1844. It is reported by Arabiaa 
authors that both rivers remained dry for seven years, about 460, and the 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 123 

The Oxus was stated already, in antiquity, to have changed 
her course ; probably because the bed of the stream shifted 
repeatedly; for undeniable vestiges of a broad river course, 
with upright water-worn banks, occur between KJiiva and the 
Caspian, and notably near Old Ourgengj. Both streams now 
hasten the repletion of the Aral, already of small depth and 
full of islands ; and these noble rivers, at some future period, 
may be lost in the sand, or take a course still further north, to 
Lake Aksakal, or ultimately reach the Tobol or the Ichim, and 
terminate in the Polar Sea. 

Such are the abstracts of statements, and the inferences 
which establish the existence of an Asiatic Mediterranean, or, 
rather, a lagoon sea, in the earlier period of man's presence on 
the earth ; for until ages after, though in a gradual progress of 
evanescence, desiccation was not effected till the bed and 
mouth of the Obi were elevated, when the mass of waters in. 
the lagoons, no longer fed by external supplies, and being 
of themselves insufficient to maintain the equilibrium against 
percolation and the power of solar heat upon sand and hard 
clay, absorbed such an amount of moisture that the level of the 
dry plains is now far below the surface of the ocean. But so 
long as there was a sea. Northern Europe was insulated, inac- 
cessible to migration, excepting on the winter's ice, and in the 
skin or birchen kayaks of polar nations. Geographically, our 
best course is now to continue the description of the progres- 
sive rising of the Arctic soil in Europe, and to return by the 
Mediterranean to Western Asia ; because the chief phenomena 
affecting changes on the earth's surface are again common to 
both quarters of the world ; in the north referring mainly to 
the same effects as already noticed in Asia, but with more 
undeniable proof; and, in the south-east of the Mediterranean, 

statement is countenanced by the appearance above noticed, and perhaps 
still more by the prodigious number of Indo-German and Tahtar invaders, 
which broke in upon Europe about that period. They could not remain 
in a land without water. 



124 NATUEAL HISTORY OF 

marked by volcanic perturbations, passing, from time to time, 
through Western Asia to Africa, and sometimes extending con- 
vulsively to Western Europe and even to the Azores. 



EUEOPE. 

Europe, in many respects, is only the western prolongation 
of Asia, where features of the great central chain of mountains 
similarly break into ramified systems, turned to the Atlantic; 
while, on the east, they end or border the Pacific. On each 
coast there are mighty islands, containing the most energetic 
populations ; and on each continent are the two forms or races 
of mankind, which alone have advanced in mental develop- 
ment, without any common point of departure hitherto philo- 
sophically substantiated. Both quarters have volcanic spiracula 
in the seas beyond them, and on the shores, though not in the 
same degrees of activity ; for while the craters of many on the 
main land of Kamtschatka, in the Japanese islands, and on 
multiplied points in the Chinese and neighboring seas, are 
incessantly incandescent, those of Europe, with exception of 
the Italian, are dormant or extinct; and though the Azorean 
cluster turmoils on a smaller scale, Hecla, in the high north, 
alone has produced devastations, within the period of historical 
cognizance, sufficient to aflfect profoundly the permanent inter- 
ests of a resident population. At the bifurcations of the 
European continuation of the great mountain chains of central 
Asia, are dislocations of great extent, among which that formed 
by the great basin of the Euxine, or antique Axenus, is the 
most remarkable. Its present outlet at the Bosphorus, dating, 
probably, not much anterior to the Greek heroic age, was 
clearly a consequence of increased pressure, produced by the 
waters of the inland seas, already noticed, increasing their 
weight towards the south, in proportion as the north was hove 
up ; and both the Ouralian and Sarmatian arms were cut oflf 
from their communications with the ocean, but were not to be 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 125 

converted into marshes and deserts until drained off by a new 
outlet, and when the sun could act with power in the process 
of absorption. Then it was that the emphatical expressions of 
" the kings of the isles," and " isles of the west," which desig- 
nate Europe in the oldest human records, were correct in the 
strictest sense ; and, until the progressive results had been long 
in operation, man was not able to reach Europe in the strength 
of numbers, but only by families, or small clans of wanderers, 
in canoes or rafts, on the northern ice, or at the isthmus of 
Thrace, before it was rent asunder by a volcanic percussion, 
and the local deluges of Hellenic mythology took place. 

Russia, west of the Oural chain, exhibits a counter direction 
of water-courses, which forms a kind of table land in the 
Vologda province, flowing towards the Caspian and the Eux- 
ine, and having only inferior rivers turned towards the pole. 
Hills, or small mountain clusters, commence already to rear 
their heads amid the marshes and lakes bordering on the Arc- 
tic shore, through the whole province of Archangel, becoming 
more elevated westward, after the interval occasioned by the 
White Sea, till they reach their utmost north and western 
limits in the Lapland system. Vologda, and the surrounding 
high lands of Russia, were then an insulated prolongation of 
the Oural range, full of forests and marshes, with the Euxine 
reaching to a great distance inland, and the Chersonesus (now 
Crimea) was a rocky island.=^ At present the southern steppes 
are still composed of sea-sands, and the x'^egetation consists 
almost wholly of saline plants, — ArtemisicE, Salsolce, and Soli- 
cormcB^ — and lakes of salt water are frequent in the eastern 
parts ; but the great affluents towards the south attest the des- 
iccation of the soil by a progressive diminution of water. The 
fact applies equally to the Volga, Oural, and Don, as well as 
to the Borysthenes or Dnieper, and the Boug, the sacred 

* Ai-petri, the culminating point of the Crimea, is estimated at 3500 
feet above the sea. 

11^ 



126 NATURAL HISTORY OP 

stream of antique Russia, the seat of Asa gods, when their 
Alan kindred still possessed the banks of the Don. At that 
period, Sacoe wandered over the newly recovered plains of 
western Siberia, and the great streams just mentioned had 
ceased to form Archipelagos of upland islands and peninsulas, 
between shallow creeks, marshy woods, and salt water pools, 
not even now obliterated.^ Leaving, for the present, other 
considerations affecting the Euxine, till the volcanic system of 
eastern Europe is under review, we proceed with the Scandi- 
navian peninsula. 

ARCTIC EUROPE. 

From Cape North, to the southward and east, as already 
observed, the Lapland high lands are a system spreading to 
the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, and, in connection with the 
high mountain chain of Scandinavia, once formed a great 
island, the Scansia of Jcrnandes. The gulf and White Sea 
being still connected, in 1450, by the Kitkacerva, and, probably, 
also, by the Ulea Lakes ; and, more anciently, the Ladoga and 
Onega, communicating, by the Ozero Sig and Ozero Vigo, 
with the Arctic Sea. The greater part of Finland, thick set 
with pools, is in itself strong evidence of the fact. At the 
summit of the Gulf of Bothnia, it had long been observed that 
the sea was retiring by slow degrees, not so much from the 
effect of fresh water deposits, as, according to a common 
opinion, by a progressive rising of the submarine floor ; for 
many outlying rocks, known from ancient times by distinct 

* The Moscow uplands are given at 460 feet above the level of the sea ; 
but the base of the hills, and water-courses, can scarcely amount to 100 
feet, notwithstanding the continuous rising of the upper soil, by the 
deposits from above, washed down by rains and melting snows. In 
Poland, the canals lictwcen the two seas require only from ten to fifteen 
locks, although it does not appear that careful surveys had determined the 
lowest levels. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 127 

names, and sung in Runic ballads, for being the basking beds 
of seals, where daring hunters acquired celebrity in their pur- 
suit, had risen above water beyond the reach of their ancient 
amphibious visitors; parts of the gulf, which, half a century 
before, had been crossed in boats by the French academicians, 
were converted into permanent meadow land ; and more minute 
research disclosed, at a distance inland, successive lines of 
beach, each provided with a bed of shells in a very recent state. 
From these the sea had evidently receded, according to the 
changes which an upheaving motion of the land, proceeding 
from the north, effected on the levels; and correspondingly 
raised beaches have since been observed by M. Bravais, on the 
opposite declivity of the Lapland system, near Hamerfest and 
Cape North, which show, by being at greater elevations, the 
acting forces to be most powerful on the Polar side. More 
than a century passed ; with a view of settling the question by 
positive measurement, copper bolts were driven in several 
rocks at the mean sea level, and subsequent investigation sub- 
stantiates that the rising progress is greatest in the north, 
being, at the summit of the Gulf of Bothnia, at the rate of 4J 
feet in a century, decreasing to one foot at Stockholm ; and on 
the southern or German shore of the Baltic, at 0, or, as we 
think, declining.^ This supposition is countenanced by several 
submersions in the southern Baltic, already observed, from the 
year 830, such as those resulting from the great storm, when 
the island of Rugen was separated from the German shore, and 
the successive marine depressions of the commercial republics 
of Winetha, Arkona, and Jomsberg, near Wollin ; some endur- 
ing to the twelfth century, when their ruin, effected by the 

* These researches date from the year 1700, when, to mark the true 
level, copper bolts were driven in, and deep grooves were cut in the rocks. 
They terminated in 1827, the observations being made by Davis, Hellant, 
Cydenius, Klingius, Rudman, &c. Several French philosophers have 
made later researches, and confirmed the progress. See Elie. de Beau- 
mont, Mem. Acad, des Sciences de Paris. 



128 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

hand of man, was followed by submersion beneath the waves. 
Continuous denudations of the sea-shore, or erosions of rivers, 
famished the amber of the Baltic from very early ages ; and 
the check of that trade is now only as it respects discovery of 
it at sea, but not inland. A prolonged depression on this coast 
alone accounts for the absence of deltas at the mouths of the 
Vistula and the Oder, and may be in combination with the 
changes of surface, which, while the real plane of declivity of 
the two last mentioned rivers became greater towards the 
north, did not affect their watershed, and aided in throwing the 
masses of the Lagoon Sea down the western Russian rivers 
into the Euxine. 



WESTERN EUROPE. 

The whole of Northern and Western Germany is low and 
of a sandy alluvial soil, which, without the aid of cultivation 
and human care, might still be threatened with n^rine inva- 
sion ; and Denmark, in its oldest poetical aspect, was appar- 
ently less intersected by creeks and water channels than at 
present. High sand hills are easily formed by the surf and 
the wind ; they are no proof of antiquity, still less of dura- 
bility, from the fact of the sandbank, eighty feet in height, near 
Dantzig, being broke through in 1843, and forming a new 
mouth for the river, during an unusually high flood of the 
inland waters. 

Some part of the east and south of England was certainly 
connected with the opposite coast, at a period preceding the 
change of direction which the Rhine received, when, turning 
from its ancient bed through the Cevennes, a channel was 
formed to the north, and the waters first reached the sea by 
the volcanic basin of Neuwied. Western Germany seems 
then to have been indented with deep bays, estuaries, and 
islands, the salt water reaching above Wezel, on the Rhine, 
where the heaths still abound in sea-shells, in a perfect 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 129 

state.=^ No extensive deposits, brought by lengthened water- 
courses, had as yet formed deltas ; for, while the great volcanic 
craters from the Vogesian chain to Kloster Laach, in the basin 
of Neuwied ; of the Pulvermar, near Gillenfeld, in the Eifel, 
&c., were in activity, the Ehine had not broken through in a 
northern direction; and the event may be regarded as a conse- 
quence of the igneous exhaustion of that region producing a 
considerable change in the levels. The same law which 
altered successively the courses of the Oxus and the Jaxartes 
towards the north, may have operated in a similar manner on 
the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt. But these important altera- 
tions in Western Germany and Gaul were effected, and their 
consequences were no doubt considerably advanced, before 
man was present in Europe; yet comparatively recent the 
period may be deemed, since at Arend See, in Brandenburgh, 
a lake of about sixteen square miles' surface, apparently pro- 
duced by subterraneous percolation, which causes the earth to 
sink vertically, in stages each of about forty feet perpendicular, 
offered a further instance of this phenomenon so late as 1660. 
It is one of the same class as that subsidence of the earth, 
which occurred in 1806, near the delta of the Indus. 

With the prolongation and change of direction in the course 
of the rivers in Western Germany, the weight of waters, or a 
contemporaneous percussion, may have shaken the chalky and 
alluvial shores, converting Britain from a peninsula into an 
island, and forming the Channel and Dover straits. Waters 
which, until that period, covered the drainage of the Elbe, the 
Weser, and the Ems, &c., more anciently communicating, but 
imperfectly, with the Gallic Sea, (perhaps at high water only, 
through the Belgian low lands, behind the chalk cliffs of the 
coast to the Liane, south of Boulogne,) suddenly forming a 

* We have picked up on the German side of the Rhine, near Wezel, 
several univalves, and a pinna, with the hinge ending in a very acute 
point. These were found on the line of the new chaussee. 



130 NATUKAL HISTOKY OF 

vast current by means of the new efflux of the Rhine, would 
give such force to the ebb tide, (now first beginning to meet 
the flowing wave in the channel,) that a new aspect would be 
given to ail the shores, even far up the east coast of Britain. 
Heligoland, a friable conglomerate, became an island at no 
very remote period. So late as the ninth century of our era, it 
was still forty times the present area ; in 1300, twelve times 
the surface ; but woods, rivulets, pagan temples, monasteries, 
parishes, and castles, have been swallowed up, and the portion 
still above water gradually crumbles away. When the Cym- 
bers penetrated into Italy, they had recently been dislodged by 
great encroachments of the sea on their native shores, which 
were in the low lands of the above-named rivers, on the north 
of the kindred tribes of Friesland, who were repeatedly suf- 
ferers from the same cause, down to recent times. Thus, on 
the river Unsing, which, in the Roman era, reached the sea by 
a direct course, and later by the Ems, there is noticed the 
Portus Manarmanis ; and higher up the bank, a jplace named 
Siatulanda, both localities being now lost in the waters of the 
Dollaert.^ 



THE RHINE. 

The whole delta of the Rhine, by the many changes that 
have occurred in its several arms within the historical period, 
through West Friesland, Holland, and Zealand, proves the 
unconsolidated condition of the deposits ; and the depth of 
alluvial was shown at Amsterdam, in 1604, when a well was 
sunk, in an abortive attempt to obtain pure fresh water, the 

* If the convulsion, which certainly took place, belonged to so remote a 
period as a former order of creation, the final effect would have terminated 
long before our historical era. It is more likely to synchronize with the 
changes in the Polish and Russian inland seas, when a very considerable 
alteration must have resulted in the currents and tides on the west coasts 
of Europe. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 131 

workmen finding sea-shells and animal hair to the depth of 
132 feet.=^ The lake Flevo, known to the Romans, was 
evidently not then ancient, since a great portion of West 
Friesland, on its banks, sunk down and formed the present 
Zuyder Zee, leaving of the coast only a chain of islands. The 
canal of Drusus, now denominated the Yssel, is a further 
instance of the tendency of rivers to flow northwards ; for this 
additional outlet of the Ehine was a proximate cause in the 
formation of the Zuyder Zee, by breaking through the coast 
more to the north than the ancient channel, which was a river 
then known by the name of Flevus, whose waters were dis- 
charged close to the present Flie island. Another great sub- 
mersion in the south-east of Holland, was felt at the Biesbosch, 
near Gertruydenberg, in 1421, when the waters of the Mouse 
and Waal, suddenly overwhelming seventy-two villages, 100,- 
000 human beings were lost ; but the subsoil must have sunk 
at the same time, since the whole region has remained beneath 
the surface, and is now overgrown with huge reeds. 

The principal mouth of the Rhine, during the Roman sway, 
is all but obliterated, excepting in name, and the whole coast 
of Holland has much receded from its earlier tide-mark ; for, 
at the spot where the Rhine mouth entered the sea, there stood 
a fortress, by some ascribed to Drusus, by others to Claudius, 
intended to guard the entrance. The whole plan of this struc- 
ture, with walls of hewn stone, still three feet high when it 
was last seen, is now buried under the waves, and more than 
a mile from the present shore.! Coins of Postumus, Victo- 
rinus, and Tetricus, with others, resembling early Anglo-Saxon 

* See Des Roche's Hist, des Pays Bas., vol. i. A learned and exceed- 
ingly curious work, which the untimely death of the author has left unfin- 
ished. The Ganges offers a similar result, for, on sinking an Artesian 
well at Fort William, Calcutta, bones of canidae were brought up from 
the depth of 150 feet. 

t This place is known by the name of Huis-ten Britten. Here several 
alto-relievo figures of the goddess Nehalennia, and many coins, have been 



132 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Skeatta, indicate that the fortress was garrisoned, and, there- 
fore, that the river was still navigable after the Roman 
departure from Britain. Further west is the Roompot estuary, 
where another Roman fastness is supposed to have existed on 
the sand bank facing Ter Veer, in the East Scheldt; and 
Romerswal, another fortress of the same people, was also a 
snaall town on a bank in the West Scheldt, opposite Bergen- 
op-Zoom, where we have seen remains of brick walls, covered 
with sea-w'eed and muscles. So late as 1606, the Hock of 
Holland, Goeree, and other parts of the coast, were invaded 
and swept away ; and, at this day, West Capelle, in Walche- 
ren, after similar devastations, is defended by rows of piles, 
which occur again at Blankenberg, and even at Ostend. 

It was here, amidst the multitude of low w^oody islands, 
formed by the confluence of the Scheldt, Dender, Lys, Nethe, 
and Meuse, called the Paludes Morinorum, that places of 
safety existed, whither the inhabitants retreated out of the 
reach of Caesar's legions. In the middle ages, all this region 
was still encumbered with swamps and water channels, which 
extended up to St. Omers or Sethon,"^ communicated with the 
sea at Calais and Dunkirk, until the emperor Otho, about the 
year 980, caused a canal to be dug from the Scheldt to the 
Hondt, which gradually drained the upland, and now consti- 
tutes the Western Scheldt. Persevering cultivation, sus- 
tained by manufacturing riches, alone succeeded to rescue the 
drowned soil, and make it one of the most fertile portions of 
Europe. The old mouth, now the Swyn, between Sluys and 
Cadsandria, passed through a vast pool, where the largest 
ships and fleets could assemble; and the Swyn mouth was 

found during very low tides. The ruins have not been seen above water 
during the last hundred years. 

*Sethon, Portus St. Aumeri, now St. Omers, was still a seaport; that 
is, had a channel opening to the sea, in 1156, as appears by a charter of 
Louis VII. Compare Ccesar de B. G., lib. iv., with St. Paulin Epist. 
ad Victru, who wrote in the fourth century. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 133 

still SO broad in latter ages that both the fleets of King John 
and of Edward III. succeeded in attacking and destroying their 
enemies within the port; but in time that harbor became 
marshy, and then meadow land. On the side of the Western 
Scheldt, however, the land diminished, and betw^een 1377 and 
1477, upwards of forty villages were submerged, chiefly about 
Biervliet. On the coast, the village of Scharphout was swept 
away, in 1334, to the sands where now Blankenberg is built ; 
and Terstreep, near Ostend, shared the same fate. In no part 
of this vast space of alluvial deposit have fossil remains of 
Pachyderms been observed. In the Ehine alone and about 
the shores of that river, bones of two species of Bos and of 
Cervus giganteus, or Irish Elk, were noticed, and one or two 
Sauriam, referred to Crocodile, have been detected in Upper 
Flanders. 



GREAT BEITAIN. 

If we now turn to the British Islands, we find the whole 
east coast of England marked by devastation and marine 
encroachment. From Cromer, where the village of Shipden 
was lost in the reign of King Henry IV., though it is said the 
ruins are still discernible at very low tides, about half a mile 
distant from the shore, and thence by Yarmouth and Harwich 
to Reculver in the estuary of the Thames, the work of erosion 
is everywhere conspicuous, and still proceeding. The soil is 
evidently older than the alluvial of the German rivers, for 
debris of Proboscidians, of Saurians, and Tortoises, are not 
unfrequently found imbedded in it. At Dagenham, in Essex, 
as mentioned in the Phil. Transactions, the Thames bank wall 
having given way, the soil washed down, in some places, to 
twenty feet in depth, when " many large trees became exposed 
to sight, oaks, alders, and hornbeams, one of which bore 
' marks of the axe, and the head was lopped off.' " There is no 
reason for rejecting the tradition concerning the Goodwin 
12 



134 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Sands ; and the disappearance of the island was a natural con- 
sequence of the tides acting upon its low shores, from the time 
the Straits of Dover were opened, and the calamity an imme- 
diate result of neglecting to defend the banks by artificial 
means. The same force which swept away the town of Win- 
chelsea, in the reign of Edward I., had long before destroyed 
the Portus Iccius on the opposite coast, and commenced the 
gradual denudation of the rocky basis of the Channel Islands, 
where a tax is still levied and applied to arrest the further 
encroachments of the sea. 

If tradition could be trusted, the present channel within the 
Isle of Wight, was, in earlier ages, sufficiently shallow to be 
forded at very low tides, where now line of battle ships pass in 
safety ; but this result is applicable to the whole British Chan- 
nel, while Poole harbor is filled up by the deposits of slack 
water. There is a marked character in the long succession of 
landslips and "founders" in the vicinity of Lyme Regis and 
Axminster, resulting indeed from, percolation to certain under- 
lying strata, but, most assuredly, in connection with a progres- 
sive erosion of the floor of the channel.^ On the coasts of 
Devon and Cornwall, numerous marks of ancient sea beaches, 
hove up far beyond the present levels, indicate similar press- 
ures and slidings of superincumbent strata, forcing the beach 
to rise up in the same manner as occurred near Axminster. 
St. Michael's Mount, however, is now almost severed from 
Cornwall ; and the invasion of the sea is still attested by the 
remains of forest trees, sunk beneath the waters. 

Beyond the Land's End, the Scilly Islands, now forming a 
cluster of rocks, were almost wholly united when first they 
became historically known, under the name of Cassiterides. 
In the Irish Channel, submersions, perhaps even greater than 

*If similar events in other countries were carefully recorded, they 
would be found surprisingly numerous. Balbi, and Mr. G. Roberts, in 
his account of the Dowland and Bindon landslip of 1839, enumerate a great 
variety of them. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 135 

in any other part of England, appear to have occurred, and 
phenomena on shore are equally surprising. A part of the 
bed of the Severn is stated to have risen, in 1773, to the height 
of thirty feet, the back water immediately forming a lake, 
which was drained by cutting a new channel. According to 
Camden, and Bishop Hakewell's Apology, at the time of the 
Norman Conquest, part of Pembroke formed a promontory, 
extending tov/ards Ireland ; but the space was already sunken 
beneath deep sands, in the time of Henry II., when a violent 
storm so far uncovered the original surface, that many stumps 
of trees appeared fixed in the earth, " and the strokes of the 
axe upon them quite fresh." 

In the Welsh Triads, Orkney, the Isle of Man, and the Isle 
of Wight, are styled the three adjacent islands of Britain ; and 
they proceed to mention the subsequent separation of Anglesea 
from the main land. Nennius similarly alludes to the three 
adjacent islands; yet, since that period, Orkney became divided 
into several parts ; and it is evident that other portions of 
Wales and Western Scotland likewise became insulated. So 
many important changes, particularly in the British Channel, 
imply the agency of forces which were not in activity at very 
remote periods ; for, had they been of primeval date, their 
operation would have effected the whole of the changes they 
necessitated long before the dates here mentioned. 

SOUTHERN EUROPE. 

Returning to the west coast of France, we find the important 
invasion of the sea, which in the eighth century destroyed a 
great space of poor and forest land, separating Mont St. 
Michael from the main shore ; ^ and in the Bay of Biscay, 

* There is an earlier great event of this kind recorded in history, in the 
reign of Gallienus, when one or two Romano-Celtic cities, in Armorica 
or Bretagne, were destroyed. That in the reign of Charlemagne was 
equally destructive on the coasts of France and in the Baltic, 



136 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

the currents and winds continuing the encroachment on the 
coast, they have in some places advanced two miles within a 
century. 

But the Spanish peninsula, forming a plateau the most ele- 
vated of Europe, more than 2000 feet above the ocean, without 
an existing volcanic crater on its surface, is nevertheless sub- 
ject to violent earthquakes, particularly on the side of the 
Atlantic. Geologically, as regards ossiferous breccias, the 
south point of the peninsula reproduces, at Gibraltar, a stratifi- 
cation which occurs about Genoa, and is repeated in the islands 
on the coast of Dalmatia. They have all compressed, between 
beds of limestone, innumerable remains of mammals, held in a 
matrix much harder than the bones themselves. In zoological 
affinity, Spain and a considerable portion of the greater Medi- 
terranean islands bear an African rather than an European 
aspect ; and the similarity was much more evident in early 
times. Spain, having no deltas, with only a few shoals formed 
by the Tagus, Ebro, and Llobrega, is surrounded on three 
sides by very deep seas, close up to the shore. 

Further eastward, within the Mediterranean, the coast of 
France presents a totally different aspect; for the whole extent 
of the shores, with little exception, is low, belted on the sea- 
side by a shingly beach, some hundred yards in breadth, and 
having behind it salt water lagoons a mile or more in diameter, 
but only a few feet deep. This breakwater of shingle extends 
to near Aigues Mortes, and the delta of the Rhone ; for that 
river has evidently supplied the materials for it. At some 
distance, facing the Mediterranean, a chain of lofty hills con- 
tains lavas and extinct craters, particularly about Nismes and 
Montpellier, and again in the department of the Aude, where 
fossiliferous caverns exist, which will be noticed in the sequel. 
The hills trend on one side towards the eastern Pyrenees, and 
on the other, ascending the river course of the Rhone, become 
connected with the Alps ; and, assuming the name of Vogesians, 
display basaltic formations and craters, that connect them with 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 137 

the basin of Neuwied. The delta of the last-named river is 
of considerable size, with a gradual but slow progress in the 
sea ; it having been demonstrated, by measuring the distance 
between the fossa Mariana and the sea, that from the time of 
Marius to the present, a period of nearly 2000 years, only about 
1000 yards have been added to the shore. 

ITALY. 

Passing, for the present, the Alpine system without notice,=^ 
we arrive at the Italian peninsula, reposing, in its whole extent, 
upon an ignited gallery, in perpetual activity, and producing a 
sea more fathomable than the abysses of the Gulf of Lyons and 
the Genoese offing. On the Tyrhenian coast, the changes 
most readily ascertained occur at the port and city of Pisa, 
which were originally situated at the mouth of the Arno, 
whereas they are now above four miles inland; and the Ansar 
streamlet, which, according to Strabo, fell into the river close 
to the town, now terminates ten miles distant. The volcanic 
soil, alike fertile and deleterious in the maremmas, is in some 
places unstable, so that, even since the fall of the Roman 
empire, certain spots about Baiae have been sunk below the 
level of the sea, and again raised up above it, without entirely 
overturning columns, such as those of the temple of Serapis, 
all of which, at a certain elevation above their base, have been 
subjected to the boring of Lithodomi, while other parts of 
the ancient city, and a paved road, are seen beneath the waters. 
The whole length of Italy exhibits craters, lakes simmering, 

* Remarkable, however, for land slips, anciently more numerous and 
extensive than at present. In the Alps, fragments of Roman roads, with 
arched gateways, occur among elevated precipices. Hannibal encoun- 
tered a subsidence of the road on his passage. Those of Mont Grenier, 
Diablerets, Mont Chede, and particularly of the Rossberg, in 1806, are 
well known ; and that of Cernans, between Dijon and Pontarlier, in the 
Jura, where the high road sank 300 feet, in 1839, is the last of import- 
ance. 

12^ 



138 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

volcanic pits, crevices emitting sulphurous vapors, till we reach 
the kingdom and sea of the two Sicilies, where a vast concen- 
tration of volcanic fire permanently discharges from below 
smoke, gaseous vapors, flames, and lavas, by the craters of 
jJEtna, Vesuvius, and Stromboli. Thucydides, Seneca, Strabo, 
Pausanias, Pliny, and others, mention numerous earthquakes in 
Italy, where mountains were split, cities were overturned, and 
volcanic islands rose and again subsided. Since the Vesuvian 
eruption, recorded by Pliny the Younger, no calamity more 
appalling appears on record than that which took place in 
1538, when, in a few hours, Monte Nuovo, a flaming moun- 
tain of four miles in circumference, rose out of the earth, 
destroying the village of Tripergola, obliterating the Lucrine 
Lake, and caused the ruin of the country to six miles around 
it; unless one greater still occurred, when Messina in Sicily, 
and many towns of Calabria, were destroyed in 1786. 

No author states at what period, and to what extent, vol- 
canic convulsion changed the surface of Eastern Italy, and 
separated Calabria from Sicily, by a disrupture now denom- 
inated the Straits of Messina. The event can only be sur- 
mised by approximation ; for, although the catastrophe confess- 
edly took place before written historical record, it was not so 
remote as to have obliterated the terror impressed upon the 
memories of subsequent generations living in the vicinity, or 
to have worn away the dangerous impediments of Scylla and 
Charybdis, which intervened at the most adjacent point for 
crossing from one coast to the other, and probably not long 
before the foundations of Zancle (now Messina) were laid. 
The event may synchronize with the close of that transition 
era of convulsive phenomena which includes the bursting of 
the Thracian Bosphorus at the volcanic Cyanean islands ; the 
Greek deluges ; the separation of Eubaea from Attica ; and the 
passage of a large diluvian wave across the isthmus of Corinth, 
which has left indelible marks on all the coasts in the vicinity, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 139 

and was particularly recorded at Dodona.^^ They were the 
necessary precursors of the first swarming of the tribes that 
came down the Hellespont, and commenced the heroic age of 
Greece and Italy. 

In the Adriatic, at the summit of the gulf, we find Adria, or 
Hadria, said to have been built on the sea-shore, by Tarchon, 
leader of the antique Etruscan people, about the time of the 
Trojan war. The present town, standing upon the rubbish of 
two others, is now fifteen and a half miles distant from the 
nearest mouth of the river Tartarus, which is still six miles 
within the farthest point of land projecting in the sea.t It is 
only of late years that, in making excavations at the depth of 
several feet below the present surface of the town, a former 
level was found, with numerous fragments of Etruscan and 
Roman pottery ; and, at a still greater depth, a second floor, 
where all the earthen-ware fragments proved to be Etruscan 
alone, and there were vestiges of a theatre ! In these facts, 
both the raising of the soil and progress of alluvial deposits are 
demonstrated in waters but little disturbed by marine currents, 
and during a space of 3000 years. 

THE EGEAN. 

In the Egean, volcanic disturbances have been and still are 
exceedingly numerous and destructive. From the remotest 
periods recorded, islands have risen up from the sea ; such as 
volcanic Delos, overhung with vapors to the present time ; or 
torn from the continent of Asia, like Samos, with its ancient 
organic remains of Neiades, and craters, one of which com- 
menced latterly to furnish a rivulet running to the sea; and 

* Scholiast upon the 16th Iliad, v. 233, quoting Thrasybulus, an ancient 
author, and other comments. 

tNow Podi Levante, and most likely the oldest bed of the Padus or 
Po ? The lowest stratum of ruins was at the depth of more than twenty 
feet. 



140 'NATURAL HISTORY OF 

other islands, within these few years, have been visited by 
earthquakes of the most calamitous violence. Through the 
Cyclades there came, in remote antiquity, a sea wave, raised up 
by some volcanic convulsion, which desolated Greece, and is 
recorded as one of the deluges ; while other percussions 
opened the passage already mentioned, for lowering the surface 
of the Euxine into the Propontis, and thence to the Egean; an 
event commemorated in Samothrace, when that island most 
likely was separated from the main coast."^ It was then 
the Cimmerian Chersonesus, from a rocky island, became a 
great peninsula, and Phanagoria of the Moeotis began to 
exhibit the cones of deposit from which mud is ejected to the 
present time. The Euxine, Caspian, and Mediterranean, have 
shoal water and islands almost exclusively on the north, and 
the deepest sea on the south ; but the Euxine alone witnesses 
percussions, which still continue to elevate the highlands of 
the Crimea. From the year of the death of Mithridates to the 
present period, many severe earthquakes have shaken the 
promontories of the coast, and caused destructive avalanches. 
At Sevastopol, the ancient Sinus Portuosus of Mela, iron rings, 
originally fixed in the rocks, probably by the Genoese, to 
secure vessels, in natuml docks, close to the shore, are now 
risen so high above ground as to be no longer available for 
that purpose ; and, in the autumn of 1844, a sudden heaving 
of a volcanic disturbance caused the sea to recede from the 
whole line of the northern coast, leaving all the vessels then 
close in shore stranded. 

In the Caspian, Baku, like Derbent, had its walls partly 
thrown down by the sea, in 1784; yet now it stands a quarter 

* The effects of this sea wave are clearly marked on the cast coast of 
Attica and Peloponnesus. It broke across the isthmus, and left marks 
of its violence in the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs. Traditional recollec- 
tions of these enormous catastrophes are depicted in the language of St. 
John — "And every island fled away, and the mountains were not 
found." Rev. xvi. 20. Patmos was in the direct line of this convulsion. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 141 

of a mile from the water's edge. The level varies occasionally 
six or seven feet ; and small volcanic cones still break forth on 
its shores. In the lake, or rather bay of Ensili, three new 
islands have appeared since 1811, already showing- several 
willows upon them ; and the back water of the Gemishawas is 
become fordable, though, until recently, it was not to be trav- 
ersed, the river waters having sensibly diminished. The Cas- 
pian is the Deryah Kolsum of the Arabs, because it is covered 
with a mist ever hanging on the water. 

ASIA MINOR. 

Asia Minor appears subjected to the action of at least two 
subterranean volcanic galleries, which, in connection with the 
Italian system of ignitions, passing beneath the Egean, are the 
agents of convulsion in that sea ; and in Greece and Thessaly, 
produce those mephitic localities, inflammable rivers, and 
gaseous exhalations, which were used in mythological doctrines 
and in the prophetic impositions of the Delphic oracle. 

Others, of at least equal antiquity, existed on the Asiatic 
side ; and although no conspicuous volcanic crater is pointed 
out in the peninsula, excepting at the present Dopes Kalesi, 
and at Koolah in Catacecaumene, where the lava district 
reveals volcanic agency, apparently not long dormant. There 
is, also, at the extremity of the Bosphorus, where the Cyanean 
craters are submerged, a recent lava formation, particularly 
conspicuous on the Asiatic shore. 

No region has been more constantly disturbed by earth- 
quakes than this high peninsula, from the earliest period to the 
present; but perhaps most so during the Roman sway, when, 
in the reign of Tiberius, fourteen, and in that of Julian not less 
than one hundred and fifty cities were destroyed in one con- 
vulsion. 



142 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



BASIN OF THE DEAD SEA. 

These convulsions of the surface are external signs of the 
gallery that passes westward; but there is a second, which 
turns from beneath Taurus, south of Syria and Palestine, pro- 
ducing, in the valley of Jordan, the celebrated Dead Sea, or 
Asphaltic Lake, regarded as the deepest basin, beneath the 
level of the sea, in the known world, the surface of the water 
being far below that of the Caspian. No exact measurement 
of this depression of the soil is, as yet, rigidly determined, 
because the instruments employed for the purpose, — the mer- 
cury rising to the summit of the tube, — have always failed, by 
the excess of their indications, to offer a trustworthy basis for 
calculation. Russeger, the last scientific traveller, being simi- 
larly disappointed, gives, from other calculations, the surface 
of the lake, at the mouth of the Jordan, as 1319 French feet 
below the Mediterranean ; Jerusalem, by measurement, as 2479 
feet above it ; and yet no traveller remarks, that if these state- 
ments be nearly correct, the ridge behind, or west of Jerusalem, 
being in sight from the lake, would be more that 4000 English 
feet higher and loftier than any mountain in Great Britain ; ^ 
nor is there any notice taken of the levels of the lake, as com- 
pared with the Gulf of Akkaba, — which is nearly on the same 
level as the Mediterranean, — and the elevation of the ridge 
which parts the Dead Sea from Wady Moosa. Already, 
before the era of Abraham, it is evident, by the notice of slime 
pits (naphtha) in the plain of Gomorrah, that volcanic action 
was kindled ; and when the surface subsided into the Asphal- 

* According to measurements of British naval officers, taken after the 
capture of Acre, in 1839, it appears — by lines of altitude, carried from 
the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea, &c. — that the Lake of Tiberias was 
84 English feet below the Mediterranean ; the Arabah al Kadesh 91 feet; 
the Dead Sea, 1337 ; whence it is plain no region of equal extent, on the 
earth, presents phenomena of such great difference ; for the culminating 
point of Libanus rises, at Mount Hermon, to 10,000 feet. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 143 

tic Basin, the ridge in Wady Moosa was elevated, and the Jor- 
dan, already insufficient to compensate for the evaporation, 
could no longer flow to the Red Sea. There is, at least, a 
certain affinity with Africa, in this region, supported by a pro- 
portion of the local botany, and by the fish of the Lake of 
Tiberias. The volcanic flues, branching off*, pass through 
Arabia, to Aden, and beneath the Red Sea ; and another, more 
due west, communicates with Northern Africa, beyond the 
Egyptian boundary, far into the interior. 

From Palestine and Syria, eastward, to the Indus, there are 
only three rivers of importance that reach the sea. They all 
unite into one channel, and although they drain an immense 
surface, generally arid and sandy, and the Tigris, in particular, 
is swift, they have no period of inundation like the Nile, but 
simply freshes in the spring ; and albeit they terminate at the 
head of an enclosed gulf, they have not formed an extensive 
delta. The high table land of Persia is estimated at little less 
than 4000 feet above the sea, a most arid desert, but with rivers 
from the north-eastward forming the fertile valley of the Hel- 
mund, and terminating in Lake Aria or Zurra, anciently much 
more extensive than the present, having ruins of vast cities in 
the vicinity, unknown in history, and of the remotest period; 
the cradle where Iranian power was nursed. From the social 
systems first evolved on the Oxus and the Helmund, and 
thence carried to the Tigris, Euphrates, and Choaspes, when 
combined with those of Egypt and Palestine, the present relig- 
ious, moral, and scientific state of the world is almost entirely 
drawn. The fundamental principles relating to the highest 
good, and the maxims of the greatest evil, emanated from 
Western Asia, wherein the ancients used to comprehend the 
Nile, as far up the course of the river as the Nubian frontier. 



144 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

CURRENTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. 

But the isthmus, connecting Egypt with Asia, did not exist 
at the commencement of the present geological arrangement. 
The Arabian prolongation of volcanic galleries may, indeed, 
have dug the channel of the Red Sea, since, on the Abyssinian 
sides, mephitic lakes and a sulphurous soil reach from the 
coast to the mountains, and chains of dormant craters pass 
behind the coast, in a south-east direction, even beyond the 
equator. So, likewise, on the west of the Nile, extensive 
tracts, bordering on the desert, manifest igneous ttctivity, not 
far below the surface, in ebullitions assuming various fantastic 
forms. From the period, however, when the Straits of Calpe, 
the Bisepharat of Phoenician navigators, admitted the Western 
Ocean, to give the present form and extent to the Mediter- 
ranean, anteriorly supplied with very little fresh water, it may 
be supposed that the evaporation, being more counterbalanced 
by the influx, passing mostly eastward in the straits, and still 
more at a great depth below the surface, raised the sea to a 
higher level, and caused the circular course, which now, flowing 
eastward along the coast of Barbary, casts all river deposits, 
brought down that shore, into the recess of the two Syrtes, and 
near the summit of the Mediterranean, sweeps onward all the 
Nilotic discharges. At the commencement of the present 
superficial terrene system, when the current first acted upon 
the efflux of the river, it threw, similarly as in the Syrtes, all 
deposits back upon the coast, and filled the channel of com- 
munication from the Red Sea, whose level, somewhat higher, 
was kept in check by the prevailing northerly winds, until a 
bank was formed and marshes created, which the same northerly 
winds, acting upon the sea-shore, would supply with dust, and 
all other currents of air aided to fill up, until the isthmus was 
formed, and the delta had advanced to the edge of deep water, 
when first it came within the force of the real sea current. 
Thus, a space of 72 miles, from Suez to El-Arish, and nearly 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 145 

180 along the sea-coast, from west to east, became a fertile 
land, where inundation extended ; pasturage where it is acces- 
sible only in part, and desert or marsh in all the rest.^ 

On the Syrian coast, the Mediterranean current is first 
repelled by the rocky soil of Palestine, and turned northward, 
undermining, in its passage, the sea-wall, formed of enormous 
stones, at the port of Caesarea ; but, further on, completing, with 
the sands of Egypt, Alexander's work, at the isthmus of Tyre. 
Next, at the Calpian Gulf, the foot of Cilician Taurus again 
turns the current, which, now forced in a direction to the west, 
is broken into several devious branches by Cyprus, Rhodes, 
Crete, the Egean Islands, Sicily, the Peloponnesus, and Italy; 
but still not so entirely but that it is again recognized in the 
Tyrhenian Sea, and thence sweeping the deposits of the Rhone 
along the coast of Gaul, and finally allowing the unevaporated 
portions to pass out at Calpe, or to resume again a new circular 
course.! 

* "It is inferred, from geological data, that the Red Sea, in former 
times, penetrated to the basin of the bitter lake, and there left high-water 
marks, distinguishable at the present day ; flowing from thence to Lake 
Meusaleh, thus entirely separating the land of Africa from that of Asia." 
But Captain Veitch adduces strong reasons against trusting to the opera- 
tions of nature to excavate for herself a channel, again, in that way, and 
shows, also, why it would not be expedient to form a navigable channel 
of still water, Avith locks, between the two seas, or dependent on the 
Nile. This statement, drawn from actual survey, leaves no doubt of the 
primaeval separation of the two continents, viewed geologically ; and the 
expected condition of dead water, instead of a current in the channel, 
should a communication be reopened, is supported by the fact, that a 
simple process of nature was sufficient to close it. 

t It is the enormous evaporation, and the very scanty supply of river- 
water in the Mediterranean, that causes its waters to be deemed evea 
more salt than the ocean. The direction of its currents is traced by the 
species of fishes, periodically entering the straits, from the west coast of 
Africa, and in those that remain permanently, either in shore, in sound- 
iqgs, or beyond them. 

13 



146 NATURAL HISTORY OP 



AFRICA. 

Of Africa the most striking feature is the tabular form of its 
structure, standing immovable, like a huge bulwark, almost 
centrally beneath the equator, without a plentiful vegetation, — 
almost without forests ; with few undrained lakes, and, conse- 
quently, few great rivers, which derive their supplies of moisture 
from clouds coming from distant regions, and furnishing a 
diminishing supply ; for there is an acknowledged desiccation 
in progress, observed alike in Morocco, at the Cape, and most 
in Abyssinia. Perhaps the oldest of the continents, it appears 
exhausted. With a vigorous animal or vegetable life, thinly 
scattered, or confined to particular valleys, and with proofs of a 
desert state so remote that no other region can produce a simi- 
lar example, — namely, in the Baobabs [Adansonia digiitata)^ 
of ninety feet in circumference, a bulk so enormous as to 
induce Adanson to assert that they contained full six thousand 
rings of annual growth, — that is, an age which no other living 
organic body on earth can claim."^ In this great region, the 
Nile alone, of all the rivers, is of ancient interest in what 
relates to the History of Man. Though for centuries past little 
or no addition has been made to the delta, the coast lakes have 
materially decreased in depth, and the bed of the river is now 
much higher than in antiquity, since the plain of Thebes 
is, during inundations, in many parts under water. In Abys- 
sinia, mountains, formerly covered with forests, are become 
pasture lands ; and a large river, the Kibber, which descends 
from the south-west side of that great mountain system, pro- 
ceeds obliquely to the eastern coast, and is suddenly arrested 
at its mouth, under the equatorial line, by a broad beach of 

* There are oaks in France, Switzerland, and even in Great Britain, 
above thirty feet in circumference, which may be 3000 years old. A 
chestnut on Etna, not one of the largest or oldest^ left a portion of a ^i^e 
shoot, not containing the inner core or circles, which, nevertheless, afforded 
1700 rings of annual growth. Baobabs thrive best on arid plains. 



' THE HUMAN SPECIES. 147 

shingle, through which the waters percolate to the Indian 
Ocean. 

On this side no other facts of interest are offered, excepting 
the great volcanic spiracles, forming islands far out to the 
south-east ; and a whole range of craters on the outside coast 
of Madagascar, probably with submarine trunks that connect 
them with the series on the main coast ; and the straits them- 
selves, which, perhaps, were formed by the collapse of a part 
of the Comoro Islands. 

Down the coast, to the Cape of Good Hope, and thence 
along the western shores to Mauritania, no objects of a direct 
interest to our present researches present themselves, excepting 
those clusters of volcanic islands, with craters on peaks of very 
great elevation, which were believed by the ancients, and by 
many moderns admitted, to be the wrecks of the Atlantis, 
recorded by the priests of Sais as the site of a fearful deluge, 
which, it seems, was confounded with a similar event, already 
recorded among the devastations of Greece. In the plains of 
Morocco, among the high lands of Abyssinia, in the bed of the 
Quorra (Niger), in Congo, and at the Cape of Good Hope, simi- 
larly formxcd table mountains, with precipitous sides and lime- 
stone summits, occur, and with deep valleys or flats between 
them, produced by forces that cannot now be satisfactorily 
explained. We may add, that while all the ancient adventi- 
tious populations have greatly decreased, the indigenous negro 
races alone continue to expand. 

AMERICA. 

America, stretching from the Arctic to the Antarctic Circle, 
has the great chain of cardinating mountains in the same 
direction, with indications of far more awful convulsions than 
are remarked on the old continent ; for here the nutations of 
the great ridge, instead of influencing the continent, like the 
Himalayaaj with a gradual action upon their abutting planes, 



148 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

have snapped near the fulcrum of its western side, nearly two 
thirds of the whole length, from Terra del Fuego to California, 
and sunk that portion of the continent in such deep sea, for 
many degrees seaward, that scarcely an island remains above 
water. Freed, it would seem, from the adhesion of the broad 
surface, as naturally belonging to this side as on the other, and 
to counterbalance it, as is the case in Asia, the Andes, in their 
whole extent in the vicinity of the ocean, retain volcanic 
activity in full force, and consequently heave up, at the present 
time, as perseveringly as at the remotest periods. They con- 
tinue to rise with every great shock of an earthquake, perhaps 
affecting the whole height of the mountains, but certainly the 
western or maritime side, where successive stages may be 
traced to a great elevation, and rocky heads, lines of beaches, 
and shoaling waters, become more and more evident ; as if 
nature labored to recover from the deep a portion of long-lost 
terrestrial soil.^ The multitude of enormous volcanoes in the 
Andes do not appear to have depressed the east coast to a per- 
ceptible submersion, or, rather, to Avhat is more than fully 
replaced by the deposits of the vast and numerous rivers 
which intersect the whole surface. It is, moreover, stayed by 
the mountain system of Brazil, Guiana, and Venezuela, from 
whence, and from the basins at the foot of the Quindiu Cordil- 
lera and the Pacaraima mountains, have been effected many 
entire discharges of elevated lakes, such as the Amucu and 
Savannas of Dutch Guiana, Avhile the swamps of the Parana, 
and the lagoons on the coast, remain unchanged. But at the 
northern extremity of South America, where the Andes pre- 
sent an interruption in the direct chain, a branch turning east- 
ward, and then to the north, shows a connection from volcanic 
Trinidad, through the West Indian Islands, till the mountain 
character, but not the volcanic connection, is lost in the island 

* In most volcanic upheavings, there follows a subsidence, — nature 
endeavoring to return to its anterior equilibrium, — but the result is rarely 
down to the former level. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 149 

of Cuba. All this enormous surface, from Barbadoes to Vera 
Cruz, forming the two distinct basins of the Caribbean Sea and 
Gulf of Mexico, presents many indications of a violent disruption 
belonging to the present geological superficies of the earth, and 
perhaps not remote in date from the submersion of Atlantis on 
the African coast. A series of volcanic craters, still in violent 
ignition, may have worked on the single mountain ridge, of no 
great breadth of base, pressed by the unceasing action of the 
tropical current, laboring in a gyration, which impels the Atlan- 
tic Sea, on the north of the equator, and strengthened by the 
trade wind, broke through the mountain barrier directly opposed 
to it, perhaps not unaided by the collapsing of the submarine 
galleries, or struck by some great sea wave, rushing from the 
African or from the Azorean regions, under the impulse of a 
mighty earthquake. On examining the Windward Islands, the 
Grenadines, between St. Vincent's and Grenada, point out 
where the force of the current was most violent; and the 
rocky hills, from Tobago to beyond Curacjoa, almost perpendic- 
ular on the north, and sloping to the south, attest its contin- 
uity through the Caribbean Sea. 

WEST INDIES. 

The Windward Islands are, in this view, only the remains of 
a vast mountain chain, still impeding the currents sufficiently 
to produce a very considerable difference in the sea levels 
between their east and west coasts ; or, as they are obviously 
checked, according to their respective localities. Thus, in the 
port of Havana, the sea is thirty-six feet lower than at the 
north side of Guadaloupe, according to the observations of 
Jonnes, compared with those of Humboldt and F. de Bellevue. 
If the great current were not restrained by the islands, and by 
the coast of Yucatan turned into the Florida Strait, the sea 
level at the isthmus of Panama, now by some asserted to be 
twenty-four feet lower than the Pacific, and by others to be 
13# 



150 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

equal in elevation, or differing only as the tides on either side 
may be at full, would rise perhaps sufficiently to separate the 
two great portions of America. 

Here, then, we have a not improbable diluvian event in the 
western portion of the world, sufficient to account for all the 
traditions locally current, in the supposition that the progeni- 
tors of the present population were already in part upon the 
spot. Some authors have assumed the American cataclysm to 
be the same as the Atlantic ; but what is more evident is the 
volcanic agency in both, and the ignited galleries passing 
beneath the ocean, with spiracula in the western African 
islands, and the Azores completing the electrical circle on this 
side, as the Kamtschatka volcanoes and the Caroline and Jap- 
anese effect on the other. 



NORTH AMERICA. 

North America, having the Rocky mountain portion of the 
Cordilleras for central watershed, although it is less disturbed 
by volcanic convulsion, in proportion as the ridge is further 
removed from the sea, and has not discharged a great propor- 
tion of the inland lakes that weigh upon the eastern plane of 
its surface, is nevertheless not so free of igneous agency as to 
escape the West Indian ramification, which passes through the 
Floridas and South Carolina, to the plain of the Mississippi, 
where earthquakes left permanent tokens of their force in 
1811. Over a considerable part of the eastern side of the 
great mountain ridge, more particularly where ancient lakes 
have been converted into morasses, or have been filled by allu- 
vials, organic remains of above thirty species of mammals, of 
the same orders and genera, in some cases of the same species, 
have been discovered, demonstrating their existence in a con- 
temporary era with those of the old continent, and under sim- 
ilar conditions. But their period of duration in the Ney»v 
World may have been prolonged to dates of a subsequent time, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 151 

since "the Pachyderms of the United States, as well as those 
of the Pampas of Brazil, are much more perfect, and, in many 
cases, possess characters ascribed to bones in a recent state. 
Alligators and crocodiles, moreover, continue to exist in lati- 
tudes where they endure a winter state of torpidity beneath ice, 
as an evidence that the great Saurians in that region have not 
yet entirely v^^orked out their mission ; whereas, on the old 
continent, they had ceased to exist in high latitudes, long before 
the extinction of the great Ungulata. The vast extent of sandy 
alluvial territory, from the Gulf of Mexico to the summit of 
Long Island, appears as if it were a late deposit, in part debris 
of the Mexican and Caribbean portions of the continent, car- 
ried north, and thrown off when the Gulf Stream was formed. 
At the mouth of the Mississippi, the sea, of small depth along 
the whole coast, continues to recede before the delta of the 
river ; and the Florida and Carolina shores northward form a 
series of lagoons on the ocean side. The stream rushes 
onwards in a north-east direction, and with a gradually de- 
creasing velocity and temperature (though both are still very 
perceptible off New York), until it is finally neutralized at 
Nantucket, and the last particles of deposit suspended in it are 
precipitated to form the banks of Newfoundland. A continent 
torn asunder and washed away alone could furnish the immense 
alluvial surface and submarine banks here noticed. The rivers 
of the United States and Canada are not of a nature to have 
added more than feeble deltas, such as that of the Hudson at 
Sandy Hook. Great changes are commemorated by the Indians 
in their mythological and legendary tales, both in the direction 
of the tides and in ancient accumulations of ice.^ 

THE PACIFIC. 

The Pacific and South Seas are likewise replete with evi- 
dence of great geographical mutations; some have already 

* See Appendix. 



152 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

been noticed, and the active progress of coral reefs proves the 
vast proportion of space beneath the waves, either still sinking 
lower, or again in a reascending state. Volcanic cones, far 
from continents, like flaming beacons at sea, towards the South 
Pole, as Hecla is in the north, may be elaborating elements for 
future geogonies, or heave up regions now sunken, on the 
southern side of the equator, more particularly where a 
peculiar zoology, living and fossil, appears to point out that 
one existed at an anterior period; and, by the evidence of the 
great Struthionidae, such as Dinornis, only recently extinct, 
that animals of such bulk were not originally confined to 
islands not larger than New Zealand ; which, moreover, is 
replete with craters nearly all dormant. 



The foregoing statements have been submitted, in this place, 
somewhat more at length than the nature of the present volume 
would seem to warrant; but we apprehend, no view of 
the primeval history of Man can be complete, without reference 
to the conditions of existence which obtained in the first more 
calamitous ages of his presence on earth. Though particular 
points in the changes here alluded to may be doubted or denied, 
still sufficient will remain to substantiate the influence they 
must have exercised upon human distribution, upon man's 
earliest wanderings ; and they will finally establish, we think, 
the fact of his coexistence with the latter period of the great 
Pachydermous era. We have, in fact, both sacred and profane 
authority for diluvian convulsions of great magnitude, when 
the earth was inhabited by human families, in quarters very 
distant from each other, and when many genera of animals 
may have perished. If, in the opinion of geologists, more than 
due importance has been ascribed to the action of volcanoes, 
the answer is, that the violence of subterrene fires was unques- 
tionably much greater, and its presence much more generally 
manifested, than in succeeding ages ; since it can be shown 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 153 

that scarcely one fortieth of existing craters is now in activity, 
or about one hundred in four thousand ; and yet, that there are 
still about two thousand eruptions in a century, or about twenty 
per annum. Moreover, Iceland offers a comparatively recent 
example to what extent a volcanic eruption may ruin a great 
region of fertile country. Since this was written, another 
devastation has taken place in the same island. 



BONES OF MM AMONG OEGANIC EEMAINS. 

For the further illustration of this important question, it is 
requisite to examine whether the organic remains of extinct 
animals, found in the soil, and chiefly in limestone caverns and 
clefts of rock, are accompanied by human remains, bearing sim- 
ilar characters of antiquity. Although, as yet, few systematic 
researches on this head have been made, even in Europe, and 
it is likely that in many bone deposits no human exuviae have 
been noticed, still a sufficient number of instances attest to the 
fact, and leave the question open only on the ground that they 
were accidental cases, not belonging to the same period. "^ 
Donafi, Germer, Rasoumouski, and Guetard, maintained that 
human bones had been found intermixed with those of lost spe- 
cies of mammiferae, in several places. They had been detected 
in England,! in caves and fissures, enumerated by Professor 
Buckland ; they were found at Meissen in Saxony, and at Dur- 
fort in France, by M. Firmas. A fossilized skeleton, found in 
the schist rock, when excavating the fortifications of Quebec, 

* Baron Cuvier, in the last conversation we had with him on the sub- 
ject (in 1824), admitted that although the human fragments discovered at 
Cette, near Monaco, and in the caves of the Apennines, might be more 
recent, the opinions then in vogue would require considerable modifica- 
tion, 

tAt Kirkby, in Yorkshire, in 1786, in the fissures of a limestone 
quarry. 



154 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

in part presen'-ed in the museum, at the seminary, excited no 
attention ; and the well-known Guadaloupe skeletons, one of 
which is now in the British Museum, had been pronounced 
recent upon hypothetical reasoning. Those discovered by M. 
Schmerling, in the Liege caverns, were similarly disposed of, 
and the reports of Dr. Lund, residing at Lagoa Santa, in Bra- 
zil, respecting partially petrified human bones, found by him in 
the interior of the country, and represented to have been in 
the same condition with those of numerous animals now 
extinct, which accompanied them, attracted no more than cred- 
ulous attention, although they were represented to have belonged 
to that singular flat-headed form of man which will be noticed 
in the sequel.^ 

But the fact of juxtaposition of the bones of extinct mam- 
mals and of man recurs so often that some may be mentioned 
more in detail, thus : — In the caverns of Bize (department of 
the Aude), in France, human bones and shreds of pottery were 
found in red clay, mixed with the debris of extinct mammalia, 
among which were recognized those of Ursus arctoideus^ Cervus 
a?ioglockis, a species equal in size to the common Stag; Cervus 
Reboulii, Capreolus Tournalii^ and Lefroii, <^c. 

Soon after, the celebrated Marcel de Serres examined the 
caverns of Pondres and Souvignargues, and detected the remains 
of human skeletons and pottery in the same deposits with bones 
of a lost species of Rhinoceros {R. tickorinus), a small kind 
of Equus, and a Stag [Cervus cataglochis). 

On the Rhine, skulls of gigantic Bisontes andUri occurred, 
and Dr. Boue found human bones mixed with others of extinct 
species at Lahr. In the vicinitj'- of Xanthen, beneath an altar- 
stone, the head of a Cervus giganteus (Irish Elk), and a quan- 
tity of ashes, were discovered. 

*Pr. Lund has since discovered another deposit of fossilized bones, in 
the province of Minas Geracs, along with several entire human skeletons. 
He enunrjerates, in the same deposit, forty-four species of extinct mam- 
mals, among which the horse occurs abundantly. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 155 

In 1833, human bones were found, together with those of 
Ursus spelcBus; U. angustidens, Hyena, and a Feline not much 
less than a lion. Elephant, &c., were detected in caves near 
Liege, beneath a thick coat of stalagmite. About the same 
period, the Rev. Mr. M'Enery collected from the caves of Tor- 
quay human bones and flint knives, amongst a great variety of 
extinct species, such as Elephant, Rhinoceros, Ursus angusti' 
dens, Hyena, &c., all from under a crust of stalagmite; and 
reposing upon it was the head of a Wolf. 

Before that period, and repeatedly since, caves have been 
opened by quarrymen, at Oreston, near Plymouth, several of 
which had bones,. such as Elephant, Rhinoceros, Ox, Horse,- 
Hyena, and abundant coprolites, denoting that they had been 
the dens of Carnivora. Among them we detected the upper 
portion of the humerus of man, which was immediately thrown 
away upon being pointed out to the possessor ! ^ Other cav- 
erns exist in the Plymouth Hoe ; and, no doubt, also beneath 
the present level of the sea, for several teeth of Elephants have 
been washed up by the surf. Other deposits have been found 
at Yealrn bridge, and most of the bones applied to mend the 
roads, before scientific men had notice of the discovery. Those 
at Kitley, we believe, have not been disturbed ; but eastward, 
human bones, with their usual accompaniments, have been col- 
lected from a cave near Brixham, by the Rev. Mr. Lyte and 
Mr. Bartlett. There were, in this deposit, shreds of pottery, 
like those of the caverns of Bize, in France ; and it is said the 
locality bore evidence of smoke, which renders it probable that 
it had once been inhabited by troglodyte savages. Fragments 
of pottery were discovered by Captain M'Adam, in the escarp- 
ment of calcareous breccia, at least 200 feet above the level of 
the sea, and about 100 beneath the vertex, five miles north of 

*This is not the only instance of the kind. Collectors, in the plenitude 
of ignorance and prepossession, determined that human bones were of no 
consequence. — See Appendix. 



156 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Monte Nuovo, near Naples ; and not within the sphere of 
action when that crater rose out of the earth. 



VALE OF KOSTRITZ. 

An instance more remarkably clear, because more carefully 
observed, is that of the vale of Kostritz, near the river Elster, 
in Upper Saxony, where, about fifty years ago, gypsum quarries 
were opened, in a generally undulating country, sufficiently 
elevated to preclude all supposition that inundations can have 
had the least influence on the deposits, since the present geo- 
logical arrangement, and without external evidence of the exist- 
ence of any caverns. The soil is of the usual red loam, which, 
both in France and in England, encloses organic remains, and 
here, as in South Devon, covers the limestone formation of the 
whole country. Masses of stalactites occur beneath the surface, 
and, at the depth of twenty feet, bones of large land animals 
were discovered in the loam of the greater cavities. At Kos- 
tritz, in particular, the gypsum is intersected by caves and 
fissures in every direction, and connected with each other, but 
filled throughout with red alluvial clay, containing in clusters 
bones of mammalia, and, among them, of man. They were 
first described, in a lucid manner, by Baron von Schlotheim, 
who summed up his account by saying : — ''It is evident that 
the human bones could not have been buried here, nor have 
fallen into fissures during battles in ancient times. The human 
bones are few, completely detached and isolated. Nor could 
they have been thus mutilated and lodged by any other acci- 
dental cause in more modern times, inasmuch as they are 
always found with the other animal remains, under the same 
relations, not constituting connected skeletons, but gathered in 
various, groups," &c. Beside those of man, of different peri- 
ods of life, from infancy to mature age, the bones of Rhinoce- 
ros, a great Feline, Hyena, Horse, Ox, Deer, Hare, and Rabbit, 
bones of an Owl were found ; and, since the paper of the baron 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 157 

was published, portions of a small Elephant, of Elk and Rein- 
deer, — facts which, in this case as in others, confirm the 
coexistence of species in the present zoology, on the same 
area.=^ 

Of man, fragments are in the possession of the Prince of 
Reuss, Baron von Schlotheim, Dr. Schotte, and other individ- 
uals residing near the spot ; and Mr. Fairholme, who went 
purposely to Saxony to convince himself of the facts by careful 
examination of the locality, brought home specimens, which 
he presented to the British Museum. It appears that all the 
bones are not precisely entombed within the caverns or the 
fissures, since the fragment of an arm and the thigh-bone of a 
man were dug out of the clay at eighteen feet of depth, and 
eight feet below two phalanges of a Rhinoceros. 



As the facts relating to the coexistence of human remains 
with the bones of a mostly extinct mammalogy can no longer 
be denied, it remains to be ascertained whether the explanations 
that have been offered with a view of proving that they are of 
a more recent date, can be substantiated. Those found in the 
clefts of lime rock in England (1787) were reburied or thrown 
on the public road, without further notice. The late Rev. Mr. 
M'Enery disposed of those he found, without examination ; 
and, as it appears to us, his replies to our interrogations, and 
his letter, afterwards published, did not exactly coincide, since 
there was some disparity in the bones not being all found above 
the stalagmite, but partly below. The criterion for pronouncing 
on the age of vertebrata remains, we believe, rests solely, 
beside the circumstances of location, upon the absence or pres- 
ence of animal matter in them. In the first case, a bone sticks 
to the tongue ; in the second, it is not adhesive. No series of 

*Cuvier remarked the coexistence of Elk, in all respects appearing to 
be identical with the present, the Asiatic elephant, and other tropical ani- 
mals, in the same deposits. 
14 



158 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

experiments, elaborately made, so far as we know, has yet 
determined to what extent the criterion can be trusted. Mr. 
Franklin Bellamy, with his usual patient caution, submitted a 
portion of bone from the Yealm Bridge Cave, weighing one 
drachm ; and also a piece of bone, of the same weight, taken 
from one by the road-side, that might have been exposed for 
many months. Each was placed in a separate glass vessel, 
containing diluted muriatic acid. As soon as the fossil bone 
was immersed, a violent action commenced to disengage car- 
bonic acid ; gradual corrosion, or removal of earthy matter, suc- 
ceeded, and in the space of seven hours the bone was reduced 
to a spongy, flocculent mass, which, having become lighter than 
the fluid, rose to the surface, in the shape of a mere pellicle. 
This, being extracted, weighed eleven grains. In the other 
vessel, a quiet and gradual escape of gas took place. In the 
space of seven hours the earthy matter had been extracted to 
one half of the depth of the piece ; and after the process was 
complete it remained at the bottom, and retained the original 
form of the immersed fragment. It was fibrous, soft, highly 
flexible, and elastic, and weighed eighteen grains. By adding 
sulphuric acid to the liquor, after removing the masses of ani- 
mal matter from both vessels, sulphate of lime was obtained ; 
and, when weighed, they were found to correspond very nearly. 
The fastidious caution of Mr. Bellamy did not suffer him to 
regard this experiment as conducted with the greatest nicety. 
At our request, he submitted a metatarsal bone of Hyena, from 
the same cavern, to immersion in one sixth of muriatic acid to 
five sixths of water ; but in this case, after the earthy matter 
was thrown off", the animal substance remained so abundant 
that the bone retains its complete form, is only translucent, and 
remains at the bottom of the liquor, as if it were a recent speci- 
men, of which it preserves all the characters. 

Pieces of human skull, from a sub-Apennine cavern, in 
Tuscany, probably not less than twenty-five or thirty centuries 
old, appeared thoroughly fossilized, or rather entirely deprived 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 159 

of animal juices, and in a chalky state. On examination, in 
proper chemical tests, by Dr. Armstrong, of the Koyal Naval 
Hospital at Plymouth, and by Mr. Oxland, chemist, both 
gentlemen came to conclusions which did not invalidate Mr. 
Bellamy's investigation, though they presented a smaller 
quantity of gelatine or animal matter than was obtained from 
the bones above mentioned. Human bones, from the Brixham 
Cavern, were said to be recent, though they appeared to us as 
if the extremities had been gnawed, and marks of teeth were 
traceable at the sides. Not far from the cave where these 
remains were found, there was dug out of the sand a thoroughly 
fossilized head of a Deer {Rangifer ?), within a few feet of a 
humerus of some great feline, not less than a Panther, but hav- 
ing all the appearance and color of a recent bone. Great dis- 
similarity exists in the conditions of the bones of extinct 
mammals, undoubtedly arising in part from their relative ages, 
but still more from the localities where they are found de- 
posited. Those of Megatherium, often discovered on the sur- 
face of the Pampas of Brazil, necessarily differ from bones 
located in clefts of limestone rocks in the same country. 
Again, there is a change between these and the Mastodons of 
the clayey bone licks of North America and gravels of Eng- 
land ; and, still more, between those of the Asiatic Mammoths, 
which are so perfectly fresh that bears have devoured the flesh 
after many ages of preservation in ice or frozen ealth. The 
bones found in Gibraltar breccia are not in the same condition 
as those dug out of the red loam or clay beneath stalagmites. 
They are dissimilar even in the same caves, and therefore we 
may infer that the criterion whereby their age is to be deter- 
mined is exceedingly questionable, and, consequently, that 
human bones found among them, and under similar conditions, 
should not be made exceptions upon hypothetical assumptions, 
but treated similarly with those around them. No new theory 
of guesses should be admitted for every recurring case. With 
regard to the pretence that they may have dropped into the 



160 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

caves, it is to be observed, that few of these receptacles have 
been found to have perceptible openings, excepting such 
as have been accidentally made in later times. Besides, no 
accident could place them under the stalagmite subsequent to 
its formation. When recourse was had to the supposition, that 
after the ossiferous formation was completed, either by deposits 
caused by floods, by the gradual accumulation produced 
through the intervention of resident carnivora, or in any other 
way, they were buried in the caves, without considering that 
savages, who, as the presence of flint knives proves, could, with 
such implements hardly break through the dense stalagmite 
crust, and, from their nature, would scarcely be willing to 
effect a passage through what must have been viewed by them 
as solid rock, when, within the distance of a few yards, they 
would bury a relative, worthy the trouble, with ease, in the 
common soil.^ If, in truth, the human bones found among the 
others had been placed in those receptacles by the hand of 
man, there would be tokens of human care; they would be 
found connected, and the skulls, by far the hardest bone and 
longest preserved, would not be wanting, as they generally 
are ; nor, in that case, would the human remains be deprived 
of animal juices, exactly in the same condition as those in the 
bones of extinct species, — that is, varying according to cir- 
cumstances, as they occur in both. With regard to the evi- 
dence attempted to be drawn in support of the theory that the 
human remains are more recent, because fragments of pottery 
have been found with them, and, in one case, that the cavern 
indicated the effect of smoke, it is surely unnecessary to 
remark that savages are still human beings, who make use of 
fire and of earthenware, particularly in cold and temperate 
climates, provided they are not nomads; therefore, that the 
presence of human bones indicates the existence of both fire 

* To a comparatively late age, when tools were not wanting, human 
bones ECte found deposited very near or on the surface ; not buried, but 
covered with heaps of stones or earth, forming cairns or barrows. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 161 

and culinary utensils. Cuvier, more profound and more 
cautious, simply replied, " Pas encore," when he was asked 
whether human bones, proved to be coeval with those of extinct 
mammalia, had yet been discovered. This was in 1824.^ 

TRADITIONS RESPECTING EXTINCT SPECIES. 

Though the remains of Mastodon angustidens, found on an 
elevated site of Peru, of Toxodon, Macrauchenia, and Mylodon, 
may, in America, point to a more remote antiquity, the bones 
of Megatherium, in Brazil, are on or near the surface, in a 
recent state, and in the same condition as those of Horse, often 
accompanying- them, whose bones are, nevertheless, accepted 
as belonging to an extinct species. Now, could they have 
resisted disintegration during four or five thousand years, con- 
sidering both of these to have lain exposed to, or, at least, 
within the influence of a tropical sun and the periodical rains ? 
Yet they occiir often on the surface, and the bones of the pel- 
vis have been used for temporary fire-places, by the aborigines, 
wandering on the Pampas, beyond the memory of man. In 
North America, although such remains as are now usually dis- 
covered have lain sunken in clay or mud, deposited by former 
lakes, the fact is not invariable ; and exclusive of Dr. Lund's 
discoveries in Brazil, there are native legends which indicate 
traditional knowledge of more than one species. Such is that 
of the great Elk or Buffalo, which, besides its enormous horns, 
had an arm protruding from its shoulder, with a hand at the 
extremity (a proboscis). Another, the Tagesho, or Yagesho^ 
was a giant Bear, long-bodied, broad down the shoulders, thin 
and narrow about the hind quarters, with a large head, power- 
ful teeth, short and thick legs, paws with very long claws, body 
almost destitute of hair, except about the hind legs ; and, there- 
fore, it was called " the Naked Bear." Further details are fur- 

* In this, as in other cases, Cuvier made it a rule to answer only for 
his own personal observation ; and the human skulls found in the Apen- 
nines he considered as demanding, further research. — See Appendix. 

14# 



162 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

nished by the Indians, whicli, allowing for inadequate termi- 
nology, incorrectness in tradition and translation from the 
native dialects to English, leaves a surprisingly applicable pic- 
ture to a species of MegatheridcB, perhaps the Jeffersonian 
Megalonyx. The colossal Elk, another name for the Mastodon, 
or Pere aux BcRufs^ points out that with designations of existing 
species the Indians describe extinct animals with a precision 
which, in the state of their information, nothing but traditionary 
recollection of their real structure could have furnished. We 
remember seeing, in the United States, a rib, supposed to have 
belonged to a fossil ungulate species, which bore undeniable 
marks of a wound, apparently given by some sharp instrument 
of human invention. 

Tradition, in the East Indies, similarly mentions the Aula^ 
or Auloc, Elephant-horse, a solid, ungulated proboscidean, sup- 
posed to be figured in Kindersley's specimens of Hindoo litera- 
ture, where the Macaira, represented in Budha zodiacs, is 
again seen beneath the monster horse, and, still more singu- 
larly, bears the same form in a Peruvian bas-relief, always 
resembling the presumed figure of Dinotherium giganteum, or, 
rather, with the characters of an aquatic proboscidean. 

The Uri and Bisontes, of the Hercynian Forest, have disap- 
peared, and the Machlis of Csesar, if it was identical with the 
Sech and Schelch, of the middle ages, and the same as the 
Irish Elk, by Breton bards transmuted into the Questing beast 
of romance, was a real existing species, so late as the eighth 
century, and, perhaps, even to the fifteenth. It is, neverthe- 
less, an extinct animal, and its bones are found under circum- 
stances similar to the Megatherium of America, and nearly in 
the same chemical condition. Next, we have the exuviae of 
existing species, exclusive of Horse, Beaver, &c. The Elk is 
not unfrequently found among those of extinct animals, in the 
Fame regions where that ruminant now resides ; and we ask by 
what theory, compatible with the sentence pronounced upon 
others, these are to be disposed of? 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 163 



HUMAN OSSUARIES, WITH BONES OF EXTII^CT ANIMALS. 

Now, the inference which we desire at present to draw from 
the foregoing facts, is, solely that the extinction of several lost 
species of the so-called fossil mammalia was not entire, nor an- 
terior to the first appearance of man on earth, nor even to his 
dispersion over the greater part of its surface ; and, therefore, 
that the asserted alteration in the atmosphere, by the increase 
of carbonic acid gas, if it did not affect their vitality, must have 
been shared by man, and, at most, can have operated only by 
very slow degrees."^ In order to show this probable coexisting 
state, other caverns may be mentioned, which were discovered 
in the calcareous mountains of Quercy, in the commune of 
Guienne, district of Figeac, and department d7i Lot, nearly in 
the centre of Southern France. They occur, chiefly, on two 
mountains, on opposite sides of the valley, at an elevation of 
more than 300 metres (nearly 1000 feet) above the river Sele, 
and at a locality which appears to be connected with circular 
and rectilinear fortifications, whereof the ruins bear a resem- 
blance to what are commonly called Cyclopean walls, such as 
occur in Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. Here it is that an 
unknown people actually did bury, or, at least, made ossuaries 
of the dead, at a period so remote as in all probability to be 
anterior to the arrival of the historical Celtse, who were them- 
selves colonists ere the Gauls established their power west of 
the Rhine. The people in question, though barbarian, was not 
a mere assemblage of savages. It was stationary, if we can 

* Captain M'Adam, in MS. Lectures, gives the English coal formations 
alone to have returned, — 

Oxygen, 7,706,700,800 cubic feet. 

Absorbed carbonic acid, . . . 3,128,530,309 cubic feet. 

But since the remains of birds, of marsupials, &c., are discovered, belong- 
ing to the eocene period, there does not seem to exist any reason for pre- 
suming a marked atmospheric difference could prevail, since the more 
perfect vertebratae were in being. 



164 NATURAL HISTORY OP 

trust the defensive structures to have been its work, and had 
social institutions, at a time when the Rhinoceros and extinct 
Reindeer had not departed. An obscure and remote tradition 
pervading the present inhabitants, that, among other localities, 
there existed caverns on the right side of the river, replete 
with wondrous treasures, an entrance into one was at length 
searched for, and in 1825, digging in a spot judged to be favor- 
able, at the depth of three feet, the excavators found a human 
skeleton, and an iron tool of a forked shape. They continued 
to sink a shaft to the depth of eighteen metres, about fifty-six 
English feet, until they encountered a stone barrier of human 
workmanship; and having forced a passage, the workmen dis- 
covered three branches or natural galleries, and passed by one 
of them into the<lesired cavern. Instead of treasures, however, 
human bones were found in great quantities. They were 
mostly disposed in the crevices of the rock, with evident care, 
and others were pressed regularly into a cavity, and covered 
with a flat slab, surrounded by a circle of very clean white 
stones. By the precautions that had been taken to block up 
every entrance with walls of stone, and the success with which 
it had been performed, — (since the shaft by which an opening 
was forced did not reach the real entrance), — the whole mani- 
fested that it had been a tribal necropolis, formed with great 
respect for the dead, at the same time that a strong impres- 
sion was created of its remote antiquity, from the circumstance 
of these human remains being accompanied by the head and 
three teeth of a Rhinoceros, antlers of a small species of Rein- 
deer, the head of an extinct species of Stag, the shoalder-blade 
of a very lar<re Bovine, and the canon bone of a Horse. In 
this case, we hear of no stalagmite, no red loam ; there is no 
mention of Hyenas or other carnivorous animals, and only a 
few remains of herbivora, which may have been deposited in 
the human ossuary, because they had served for sacrificial 
purposes in honor of the dead. It is not probable, if they had 
been found in the locality, when cleared for a sacred purpose, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 165 

that there would not have been any more, and in company 
with debris of carnassiers, or that they would not, in that case, 
have been removed, without exception. If the ossuary was 
formed by progenitors of Basque, Euscarra, or Cantabrian 
tribes (the most ancient marine Hyperboreans of the Ouralian 
or Finnic stock in Western Europe), the presence of sacrificial 
heads and antlers would call to mind a similar practice still in 
vogue among the kindred pagan tribes in the Arctic regions, 
where Elk and Reindeer horns invariably decorate the tumuli 
of the dead, and would substantiate the inference that the lost 
herbivorce here mentioned, including a Rhinoceros, were still 
existing at a time when the people in question were already 
settled in Southern Europe. 

From the foregoing observations, we have no grounds for 
objecting to the coexistence of man with departed species, and 
wc may naturally expect his debris to become more abundant, 
in proportion as the others are less numerous, and will contain 
an increasing number of the last extinguished, or of such as 
are still in being : — Ruminants, among which may be reck- 
oned Wrus, Bison, Elk, Reindeer, Sheep ; and Carnivora, 
more particularly Bears, Felinae, and wild Canidae, whereof 
the Wolf is among the latest. 

We have adduced the foregoing facts and inferences, not 
so much to establish the implied dependence that should be 
placed upon them singly, but as inducements for the general 
reader to bear them in mind as a whole, without which the 
conditions of human life, in a primeval state, such as man's 
distribution and earliest migrations, cannot be fairly reviewed. 
Thus much we have deemed necessary, foregoing, at the same 
time, to search beyond the later age of the great pachydermous 
distribution. 

In a mental physiological retrospect, we might, perhaps, fan- 
cifully, but not without truth, cast a pictorial glance over the 
aspect of organic nature, as it may have been presented to the. 



166 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

light of day in the brightness of youthful creation, with ver- 
dant meads and dense forests, composed of botanical families 
still extant, abounding in Palms of different genera, in species 
of giant Arundinacece and Marsh Plants, at this day flourish- 
ing^ in warm regions. Imagination might behold remaining 
Pachyderms on the borders of lakes ; huge Ruminants swarm- 
ing on the plains ; Saurians not as yet reduced in location, and 
numbers basking or floundering on the banks of the waters ; 
Hyenas by the borders of the wood, or glaring from opening 
caverns ; and, perhaps, a distant solitary column of white smoke 
ascending from the forest, the certain indication of Man's pres- 
ence, as yet humble, and in awe of the brute monarch s around 
him ; possessing no weapons beyond a club, nor a tool beyond 
a flint knife ; timid on earth, because he is still unacquainted 
with his own rising superiority over other animated beings, 
though they be more powerful than himself; and ignorant of 
his destiny to survive their duration of existence, though he 
may already have witnessed convulsions, which, while they 
tend to benefit him, and set bounds to the rest, are yet causes 
of apprehension, because he cannot wholly escape their opera- 
tion. 

Whether such a condition of life, one that may be seen at 
the present time in those regions and latitudes where the 
active-minded European has not yet overturned the old innate 
habits of savage life, — whether such an existence dates so far 
back as 6000 years, or 7322, according to Professor Wallace, 
or does not amount to forty-two centuries, is not, in our view, 
a question of importance; since, between the dates of Man's 
creation and the present, there is abundant proof, not only of 
one general diluvian catastrophe, but, also, of many others 
more or less important; and these alone, in a great measure, 
are sufficient cause for the dispersion of Man to all the points 
of the earth where he is found to reside, and in many places 
where the marks of his presence evidently date back to a very 
remote period. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 167 



EXISTENCE OF MAN AS A GENUS, OR AS A SINGLE SPECIES. 

Although the existence of Man upon the face of the earth, 
to a very remote period, cannot be denied, it still remains a 
question, in systematic zoology, whether mankind is wholly 
derived from a single species, divided by strongly marked vari- 
eties, or sprung successively or simultaneously from a genus, 
having no less than three distinct species, synchronizing in 
their creation, or produced by the hand of nature at different 
epochs, each adapted to the peculiar conditions of its period, 
and all endowed with the power of intermixing and reproduc- 
ing filiations, up to a certain extent, in harmony with the 
intermediate locations, which circumstances, soil, climate, and 
food, necessitate. Of these questions, the first is assumed to 
be answered in the affirmative, notwithstanding the many diffi- 
culties which surround it ; and a very recent author, of un- 
doubted ability, has gone so far as to conclude that man neces- 
sarily constitutes but one single species. The inference, at 
first sight, appears to repose almost wholly upon authority 
without physiological assent, excepting where physiology itself 
rests again upon an assumed conclusion. Now, with regard 
to the second proposition, notwithstanding an unnecessary 
multiplication of species successively adopted by other philo- 
sophical physiologists, it cannot be denied that, by their hy- 
pothesis, many phenomena, most difficult of explanation, are 
solved in a comparatively natural way, and so far deserve 
more implicit confidence. For the first, scientifically taken, 
reposes mainly upon the maxim in natural history, which 
declares, " That the faculty of procreating a fertile offspring 
constitutes identity of species^ and that all differences of struc- 
ture and external appearance, compatible therewith, are solely 
the effects resulting from variety of climate, food, or accident; 



168 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

consequently, are forms of mere varieties, or of races of o7ie 
common species V^ The second, on the contrary, while admit- 
ting the minor distinctions, as the effects of local causes, 
regards the structural, taken together with the moral and intel- 
lectual characters, as indications of a specific nature not refer- 
able to such causes, albeit the species remain prolific by 
inter-union, which, according to them, are the source of varie- 
ties and intermediate races. 

In systematic zoological definitions, the first may be regarded 
as sufficiently true for general purposes of classification ; but, 
physiologically, it cannot be assumed as positively correct, since 
there are notable exceptions, most probably in all the classes of 
the animal kingdom, from the lowest up to the most compli- 
cated ; and, therefore, when applied to mankind, it is of little 
weight, since even the exceptional law, assumed by the writer 
who regards the human races as necessarily of one species 
only, is more likely to operate in the usual generical form of 
animated beings, than by acting inversely, granting to one spec- 
ified type the attributes that belong, in all other instances, to 
a genus ; and so far supporting his own doctrine of a progress- 
ive creation. In physics, dogmas are admissible only so long 
as they are not disproved. Since the fissiparous propagation of 
some animals is established, " Omne animal ex ovo " is no 
longer asserted to be a universal maxim, nor that all parturi- 
tion of mammalia is derived wholly from uterine gestation; 
for, without referring to classes of a lower organization, fertile 
offspring is obtained among several genera of brute mammals, 
from the union of two or more so-called distinct species ; or 
the definition of that word is several ways incorrect. Frederic 
Cuvier, sensible of the fallacy embodied in the maxim above 
quoted, endeavored to prop it up by an argument drawn from 
the asserted gradual decrease of prolific power in a breed of 

* Buffon and Cuvier have made their definitions somewhat more com- 
plicated, but essentially the same 



THE HUMAIT SPECIES. 169 

hybrids, obtained from the union of a Wolf and Dog, reared by 
Buffon; an experiment often referred to, but not carried out 
with the care and perseverance required to render it of sub- 
stantial weight. 

We have, for example, among carnassiers, the Wolf, Dhole, 
Chakal, and Dog; that is, all the diurnal canidce, if the dogma 
were true, would form only one species, diversified merely by 
the effects of chance, food, and climate, though all of them 
reside together in the same regions, such as India, and main- 
tain their distinctions ; or the species Cards alone, as now clas- 
sified, must offer the union of three or more, aboriginally 
different. This is plainly indicated by the great inequality in 
the number of mammas; for they are not always in pairs, and 
vary from one individual to another, — from five and six, to 
seven, eight, nine, and ten.=^ No condition of existence that 
we know of can produce such an anatomical irregularity, with- 
out a presumption that it arises from the intermixture of dif- 
ferent types ; and the opinion is further borne out, by other 
structural differences in dogs, strictly so called, amounting to a 
greater diversity of forms than there are between that species 
and the Wolf, Dhole, or Chakal ; differences which maintain, 
themselves, with very slight modifications, in the extreme cli- 
mates, whither Man has conveyed the various races, large or 
small, and amounting, in some cases, to greater hindrance to 
the continuation of so-called varieties than are recorded to 
have obstructed the experiment between Wolf and Dog already 
noticed. 

The FelidcB offer another instance of blending two or more 
species without apparent difficulty. The breeds of the domes- 
tic cats produce, with the wild species of the Himalaya Moun- 

* On the property of a relative, there was lately a bitch, of the Spanish. 

mastiff breed, twenty-nine inches at the shoulder, who brought forth 

twelve puppies at one birth ; indicating even a greater disturbance in the 

. original species, and proving that mastiffs are by no means as sterile as 

is pretended. 

15 



170 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

tains, the booted of Egypt {Felis maniculata), the wild Indian 
[Felis pennantii), and the original tortoise-shell, — all regarded 
as distinct ; yet remaining prolific, with but small appearance 
of being varieties."^ 

Among Pachyderms, the Horse, and, still more evidently, the 
domestic Hog, by the great irregularity in the vertebral column, 
&c., indicate a plural origin. 

Again, in Rmninantia, Goats and Sheep intermix, producing 
permanently fertile hybrids ; although the genus Ovis, exclu- 
sive of the Argalis, offers several species in a wild state, which 
have themselves every appearance of being the types of differ- 
ent domestic races, that have been blended into common sheep 
after they had been separately subjugated. Such are the Sha^ 
a species of Little Thibet ; the Koch of the Suleimany range, 
having only five molars ; the Persian Sheep of Gmelin ; and 
the bearded or Kebsch of Africa, which is sufficiently aberrant 
to have been placed in a sub-genus, denominated Ammotragus.\ 
Another example may be pointed out in the promiscuous breed- 
ing of common cattle with Zebu [Bos Gibhosus), a species born 
with two teeth already protruded) ; with the Gayal {Bos Gav- 
cBUs) ; and with the grunting Ox {Bos Poephagus). 

Finally, let one more instance be named from among the 
Rodentia, where the Hare and Rabbit of Europe, and the vari- 
able Hare of America, produce a continued progeny ; more par- 
ticularly when the hybrids are again crossed with one or other 
of the pure species — a condition likewise the case with all the 
foregoing. 

* There is, besides, the brown black-footed cat of north-eastern Russia, 
and others that may claim a distinct origin ; but whether the Jaguar of 
South America, and the black variety (Jaguarete), forming a common cross- 
breed with the Leopard of the old continent, in our itinerant menageries, 
be successively prolific, is not satisfactorily determined, though the hy- 
brids so obtained are asserted to be both stronger and healthier than a 
genuine breed. 

t I believe, by Mr. Blyth, who first distinguished several of the above 
species. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 171 

Those who, in the eagerness of defending a dogma, have 
erroneously assumed that the conditions of hybridism, among 
animals in a state of nature, were well understood, have like- 
wise asserted that they were confined to domesticated animals, 
or, at most, to cases where one of the parents was domesti- 
cated ; and therefore, in all cases, formed vitiated, de^aded, 
and exceptional instances, should likewise have reflected, when 
the question is raised respecting the specific distinctions of 
Man, that if his influence be thus powerful upon the brute 
creation, it should not be denied to be still more efficient 
between the species of his own genus, where the degradations 
inflicted by slavery, and the corruption of so many varied insti- 
tutions, have an empire independent of climate and food in 
much more durable operation. 

Enough, we deem, has been said, to satisfy the reader of the 
exceptional character of the definition above quoted, and, there- 
fore, that it is not one to be assumed, with confidence, on the 
question of the typical forms of Man. 

Reverting to BufTon's experiment of breeding between the 
Wolf and Dog, intended by him more with a view to ascertain 
the reality of their common origin, or specifical identity, and 
by Frederick Cuvier pointed out as solved, because, according 
to his view, it established an increasing sterility in the succes- 
sive generations, we have already stated, that neither sufficient 
care nor continuity was given to the experiment ; and that one 
single pair, of homogeneous origin, continuing propagation 
through successive offspring, without a single cross of renovat- 
ing blood, would, in all probability, end in similar sterility, or 
at least in sensible degradation. Hence it remains to be proved, 
whether it would not hold equally between two such dissimilar 
forms of Man, as a typical African negro and an European, 
conducted upon the same principle, of admitting no intermix- 
ture of a single collateral.^ We doubt, exceedingly, if a 

* It is even pretended, by many white colonists, that no negro woman, 



1T2 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

mulatto family does, or could exist, in any part of the tropics, 
continued to a fourth generation, from one stock : perhaps 
there is not even one of five generations of positive mulattoes 
(hybrids in the first degree), from different parents, but that all 
actually require, for continuity at least, a long previous succes- 
sion of foreign influences of white or negro, mestise, quar- 
troon, sambo, native Indian, or Malay blood, before the sinew 
and substance of a durable intermediate race can be reared. 

When the case is referred to Mongolic blood, placed in simi- 
lar circumstances, or when merely kept approaching to equal 
proportions with that of a Caucasian or Ethiopian stock, or 
even with any very aberrant, the effect would be the same. 
If the moral and instinctive impulses of the beardless stock 
be taken into account, they will be found to operate with a 
singularly repulsive tendency. Where the two types come 
in contact, it produces war, ever aiming, on the Mongolic side, 
at extermination, and in peace striving at an absolute exclusion 
of all intercourse with races typically distinct. In the wildest 
conquering inundations, lust itself obeying its impulses only 
by a kind of necessity ; myriads of slaves carried off and em- 
bodied, still producing only a very gradual influence upon the 
normalisms of the typical form, and passing into absorption by 
certain external appearances, with very faint steps.=^ 

War and slavery seem to have been, and still are, the great 
elements, perhaps the only direct agents, to produce amalgama- 
tion of the typical stocks, without which no permanent progress 
in the path of true civilization is made. From war has resulted 
the intermediate races of man, in the regions where the typical 

having borne a mulatto child, is ever after the mother of a black ! She 
becomes, they say, in that respect, sterile. But surely this must be very 
doubtful, although our researches do not invalidate the assertion. 

* This aversion to interunion with the bearded races is a result of 
experience, proving the superior activity of those who have sprung from 
such races, and become conquerors. Genghiz, Timur, and Nadir Shah, 
were directly, or in their ancestry, descended from Caucasian mothers ; 
and hence, also, the jealous exclusion of European women from China. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 173 

species overlapped, strove for possession, and were forced to 
withdraw or to submit to absorption. Periods of repose seem 
even to be requisite before new influences are efficient ; and 
thus, by degrees, commences that state of amalgamation which 
the necessities of the case, and the conditions already mentioned, 
prescribe to generate secondary forms of Man, by combinations, 
where new habits, new dialects, new articles of food, together 
with at least change of climate in one of the constituents, had 
their legitimate sphere of action. It is thus, where the foreign 
influence of infusion is modified by a change of climate, that 
mixed races spring up and have a continuous duration beyond 
the pale of their primitive centres of existence, until the ground 
is contested by the purer races, when they fall a prey to the 
victors, are exterminated, absorbed, or perish by a kind of 
decreasing vitality, or are entirely obliterated .=^ 

The centres of existence of the three typical forms of Man, 
are, evidently, the intertropical region of Africa for the 
woolly-haired, the open elevated regions of north-eastern 
Asia for the beardless, and the mountain ranges towards the 
south and west for the bearded Caucasian. But, with regard 
to the western hemisphere, it may be asserted that it is not a 
centre of any typical stock, since the primeval Fiatheads have 
already disappeared ; and, though the partial population of the 
bearded form had been overwhelmed by the Mongolic, it is in 
turn now fast receding, and the woolly-haired, brought in chiefly 
by modern navigation, it maybe foreseen, v^^ill ultimately secure 
to itself a vast homogeneous region, without other change in 
characters than slight intermixture, advancing education, and 
local circumstances, can effect. 

Although, on debatable ground, a race may be dislodged, 
evidence of their having had possession of it remains in the 
population of the more inaccessible mountains and forests ; and 

* Yet this apparent obliteration must ever affect subsequent forms and 
mental conditions in the victors, which the physiologist ought to bear in 
mind, where known, or indicate when only suspected. 

15^ 



174 NATURAL HISTOBT OF 

this fact is still oftener observable when distinct races of the 
same type have contested the tenure of the soil. We see both 
these cases repeatedly exemplified in all the more isolated 
mountain systems, for the chains are guides to further prog- 
ress. It is shown in the Neelgherries, the Crimea, the Carpa- 
thians, the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Atlas, and even in the 
group of Northern South America — all the residence of very 
different tribes, driven to take refuge in them at various peri- 
ods, and a single ridge or valley often separating people totally 
distinct in religion, language, and aspect. The conditions of 
their several states of existence often produce a more certain 
and impressive history of the transactions in foregone ages, in 
a given country, than its best chronicles afford. 

Thus, the temporary tenure of Caucasian tribes, the Kin- 
tomoey, Scythi, Yuchi, Yeta, and Sacas, and the overlapping 
nations in the north-east of the centre, and in north-western 
Asia, is proved by their insulation or expulsion by the Mongo- 
lic, to whom the whole expanse is more genial ; while, for the 
same reason, this last named stock could not maintain its con- 
quests in Europe, , nor to the south of the central ridge in 
Asia. 

But the white and negro races of Africa readily inter- 
mix. The woolly-haired form has there no pretensions on 
the debatable land between them. The Caucasian might 
have assumed mastery beyond it, had not the force of nature 
interposed; for this race does not and cannot multiply in the 
centre of Negro existence ; and in the warmer valleys of 
the intermediate spaces, such as that of the Nile, only a mixed 
Semitic stock possesses durability. It has been calculated, 
that, since the introduction of the Mameluke power, not 
less than five millions of well-chosen colonists, of both sexes, 
from higher Central Asia, have been introduced, not to wear 
out a life of slavery, but one of power and rule ; yet no fourth 
generation of this stock can anywhere be shown in Egypt, 
even with all the additional aid of Syrian and Persian females, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 175 

to supply the deficiency.^ The force of a true Negro expan- 
sion is felt coming from the centre of Africa. It presses upon 
the Caffres, the Abyssinees, and the west coast of Nigritia. 
Morocco is already ruled by black sovereigns ; and the antique 
semi-Caucasian tribes of the north part have greatly dimin- 
ished. 

As it is with individual life, so families, tribes, and nations, 
most likely even races, pass away. In debatable regions, their 
tenure is only provisional, until the typical form appears, when 
,^they are extinguished, or found to abandon all open territories 
not positively assigned them by nature, to make room for those 
to whom they are genial. This effect is itself a criterion of an 
abnormal origin ; for a parent stock, a typical form of the pres- 
ent genus or species, perhaps with the sole exception of the 
now extinct Flatheads, is, we believe, indestructible and inef- 
faceable. No change of food or circumstances can sweep 
away the tropical woolly-haired man ; no event, short of a gen- 
eral cataclysis, can transfer his centre of existence to another ; 
nor can any known cause dislodge the beardless type from the 
primeval high north-eastern region of Asia and its icy shores. 
The white or bearded form, particularly that section which has 
little or no admixture, and is therefore quite fair, can only live, 
not thrive, in the two extremes of temperature. It exists ij 
them solely as a master race, and must be maintained therein 
by foreign influences; and the intermediate regions, as we have 
seen, were in part yielded to the Mongolic on one side, and but 
temporarily obtained, by extermination, from the woolly-haired 
on the other. 

SPECIES OR TYPICAL FORMS OE MAN. 
^ Whether we take the three typical forms in the light of 
distinct species, or view them simply as varieties of one aborig- 

* The same result is asserted to be observed on the banks of the Ganges ; 
though, in the South Sea Islands and Australia, the bearded stock multi- 
plies in Itself, and with semi-Caucasian Malay races. 



176 NATURAL HISTOEY OF 

inal pair, there appear immediately two others intermediate, 
between them, possessing the modified combination of charac- 
ters of two of the foregoing, sufficiently remote from both to 
seem deserving, likewise, the denomination of species, or at 
least of normal varieties, if it were not that the same difficulty 
obtrudes itself between every succeeding intermediate aber- 
rance. Hence, from the time of Linnseus, who first ventured 
to place Man in the class Mammalia, systematists have selected 
various diagnoses for separating the different types or varieties 
of the human family ; such as, the form of the skull, the facial 
angle, the character of the hair, and of the mucous membrane. 
But the skeleton and internal structure may not have been suf- 
ficiently examined in all conditions of existence. 

It does not appear that a thorough research has yet been 
made in the successive cerebral appearances of the foetus, nor 
of the character the brain of infants exhibits, immediately after 
parturition, in each of the three typical forms. M. de Serres, 
indeed, has led the way, and already, according to him, most 
important discoveries have resulted from his investigations ; 
for, should the conditions of cerebral progress be more complete 
at birth in the Caucasian type, as his discoveries indicate, and 
be successively lower in the Mongolic and intermediate Malay 
and American, with the woolly-haired least developed of all, it 
would follow, according to the apparently general law of pro- 
gression in animated nature, that both — or at least the last 
mentioned — would be in the conditions which show a more 
ancient date of existence than the other, notwithstanding that 
both this and the Mongolic are so constituted that the spark of 
mental development can be received by them through contact 
with the higher Caucasian innervation; thus appearing, in 
classified zoology, to constitute perhaps three species, originat- 
ing at different epochs, or simultaneously in separate regions, 
while by the faculty of fusion with the last or Caucasian, im- 
parted to them, progression up to intellectual equality would 
manifest essential unity, and render all alike responsible beings, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 177 

according to the degree of their existing capabilities — for this 
must be the ultimate condition for which Man is created. Fan- 
ciful though these speculations may appear, they seem to confer 
more harmony upon the conflicting phenomena surrounding 
the question, than any other hypothesis that rests upon physi- 
ology, combined with geological data and known historical 
facts.=^ 

*The higher order of animals, according to the investigations ofM. de 
SerreSj passes successively through the state of inferior animals,, as it were 
in transitu, adopting the characteristics that are permanently imprinted 
on those below them in the scale of organization. Thus, the brain of 
Man excels that of any other animal in complexity of organization and 
fulness of development. But this is only attained by gradual steps. At 
the earliest period that it is cognizable to the senses, it appears a simple 
fold of nervous matter, with difficulty distinguishable into three parts, 
and having a little tail-like prolongation, which indicates the spinal mar- 
row. In this state it perfectly resembles the brain of an adult fish ; thus 
assuming, in transitu, the form that is permanent in fi.sh. Shortly after, 
the structure becomes more complex, the parts more distinct, the spinal 
marrow better marked. It is now the brain of a reptile. The change 
continues by a singular motion. The corjoora quadrig-emina, which had 
hitherto appeared on the upper surface, now pass towards the lower ; the 
former is their permanent situation in fishes and reptiles, the latter in 
birds and mammalia. This is another step in the scale. The complica- 
tion increases ; cavities or ventricles are formed, which do not exist in 
either fishes, reptiles, or birds. Curiously organized parts, such as the 
corpora striata, are added. It is now the brain of mammalia. Its last 
and final change is wanting, that which shall render it the brain of Man, 
in the structure of its full and human development. But although, in this 
progressive augmentation of organized parts, the full complement of the 
human brain is thus attained, the Caucasian form of Man has still other 
transitions to undergo, before the complete chefd'oeuvre of nature is per- 
fected. Thus, the human brain successively assumes the form of the 
Negroes, the Malays, the Americans, and the Mongolians, before it attains 
the Caucasian. Nay, more, the face partakes of these alterations. One 
of the earliest points where ossification commences is the lower jaw. 
This bone is therefore sooner completed than any other of the head, and 
acquires a predominance which it never loses in the Negro. During the 
soft pliant state of the bones of the skull, the oblong form which they nat- 
urally assume approaches nearly the permanent shape of the American. 
At birth, the flattened face and broad smooth forehead of the infant ; the 



178 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

How much remains still to be done, may be further instanced 
in the mental faculties, which have been even more neglected ; 
neither have they noticed religious and traditional opinions and 
practices ; and the connection they have with the external 
world assuredly demands rigorous and dispassionate inquiry. 
In general, the leading character, somewhat arbitrarily chosen, 
is held up as singly sufficient and uncombined with others, — 
some of the most important poirits in the question remaining 
unnoticed, — and sometimes the conclusions are drawn at vari- 
ance with the systematic rules prescribed in zoology on all other 
occasions. No common concert is the result of this variety of 
systems ; and a great number of arbitrary divisions and cause- 
less names are introduced, — the proof how little zoologists are 
agreed in their views, — while the main points are scarcely 
influential ; and more than justifiable stress is laid on coin- 
cidences of language, which, notwithstanding they have un- 
questionable weight, are not as yet sufficiently discriminated 
for the general acquiescence of linguists, and should, more- 
over, be used with some regard to the occasional oblivion of a 
parent tongue, by the encroachment of another, brought in 
vogue by a conquering people.^ 

All, however, appear to have taken but slight notice of 
numerous races of the several forms of Man, which have been 
entirely extinguished, and to have assumed, for incontroverti- 

position. of the eyes, rather towards the sides of the head, and the widened 
space between, represent the Mongolian form, which, in the Caucasian, 
is not obliterated but by degrees, as the child advances to maturity. 

* We refer to such as the dialects of ancient Italy, Etruscan, &c., oblit- 
erated by the Roman Latin ; the Celtiberian and Turdetan, by the Latia 
and Spanish ; the Syriac b)'' Arabic ; Celtic by the Latin and French ; the 
Celtic of Britain by the Saxon and English ; the Pelhevi and Zend by 
Perso-Arabic ; the Mauritanian by the same ; and many more. Those 
who wish to view the abstract forms of the classifications of Man, zoolog- 
ically considered, will find an interesting article in the Edinburgh Jour- 
nal of Physical Sciences, by William Macgillivray, fol. vol. i. ; and in 
the Animal Kingdom, commenced by Linnaeus Martin ; two works which, 
it is to be regretted, were discontinued from want of public support. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 179 

ble, that the structural differences observable in nations are 
solely the result of changes of climate, food, and other condi- 
tions of existence, which a careful attention to history does not 
confirm ; and which, if they operated at all, must be a result 
of the long-continued action of the same causes upon the por- 
tions of mankind placed within the sphere of their operation, 
such as arid or moist tropical heat, arctic cold, open mountain 
ridges, or low swampy forests ; — yet there is so little cer- 
tainty that such causes do or would effect the modifications 
ascribed to them, that it is not even proved they influence the 
brute creation to any extent, except in clothing ; and the three 
normal forms of Man, in every region which is sufficiently 
genial to sustain the persisting duration of one of them, feel 
the effect but slightly; and as there are only three who attain 
this typical standard, we have in them the foundation of that 
number being exclusively aboriginal. 

This inference is further supported by facts, which show, if 
not a succession of distinct creations of human forms, at least 
probabilities that their different characteristics are of a remoter 
date than the last great cataclysis of the earth's surface ; 
for the admitted chronological data do not give a sufficient 
period of duration between that event and the oldest picture 
sculptures of Egypt, to sanction the transition from Caucasian 
bearded to the Negro woolly-haired, or vice versa, as both 
appear on the monuments. In that case, the operation of the 
decided changes would have passed through all their main 
gradations in three or four centuries, without any subsequent 
perceptible addition in as many thousand years ; ^ or should 

* There are, besides, such facts as the perfection of style in building, 
in drawing, and in hieroglyphic intaglio sculpture, remarkable in the oldest 
monuments ; not surpassed, but even receding to inferior execution, in 
subsequent ages. A national multitude must have risen out of few parents 
— all the subordinate arts invented, and so far carried to perfection, as to 
be available for scientific purposes, such as architecture, &c., in some 
cases exceeding our present capacities, or demanding the utmost ability 
in the moderns to equal. AH this, without mentioning Etruria, Bactria, 
Assyria, India, and China. 



180 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

the beardless stock, which never becomes intensely black, 
be regarded as intermediate, the difficulty is increased ; and 
it may be remarked, in addition, that the first admissible 
appearance of this type, in historical records of the west, is 
incomparably more recent. Cuvier, and other eminent writers, 
viewed the typical forms of Man to have descended from dif- 
ferent high mountain chains of the world after the deluge, and 
therefore dated them at least as old as that period. But if 
they were in their characteristics the same before, by what 
force in nature did they suddenly, in a short time, change to 
their present distinctions, after that event ? Or if they were 
clearly possessed of them, then the remoteness of the time 
renders all trustworthy decision impossible, or favors, more 
than it contradicts, that the tropical conformation was the 
most general, and the Mongolic next, because both extremes 
of temperature are not incompatible with its vitality ; and the 
bearded type last, the highest, the best endowed, and destined 
ultimately to elevate the others by its contact; and, finally, 
supports the same facts in the location of species which are 
observed to exist in the distribution of animals and plants in 
particular regions, according to their nature and structure. 
Thus, reasoning merely from facts, the woolly-haired type 
again bears tokens of greater antiquity than either of the other, 
and it may have been of Australasian origin ; not necessarily 
black, for color alone is of very secondary importance. Other 
distinctions of a specific character will be found, when those 
of the three forms are explicitly enumerated ; and thus far 
their separation as species might be claimed as established, 
but that there remain still other considerations which should 
not be overlooked, since they tend to an opposite conclusion. 



Among these, perhaps not one is more forcible than the fact 
that the lowest form of the three is the most ready to amalga- 
mate with the highest. Again, that both the beardless and 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 181 

woolly-haired acquire the Caucasian expression of beauty from 
a first intermixture, and very often both stature and form ex- 
ceeding either type ; and, in the second generation, the eyes of 
Mongoles become horizontal, the face oval. The crania of the 
Negro stock immediately expand in their hybrid offspring, and 
leave more durable impressions than when the order is reversed. 
Even from the moment either typical stock is itself in a posi- 
tion to be intellectually excited by education, it is progressive 
in development in succeeding generations. Here, then, at the 
point of most intense innervation, the spark of indefinite 
progress is alone excited, and communicated in power, pre- 
cisely according to the quantity received. For the rest, gesta- 
tion, puberty, and duration of life, exclusive of accidental 
causes, are the same ; and in topographical location, though 
each is possessed of a centre of vitality, yet all have races and 
tribes scattered in certain directions through each other, and to 
vast distances, at the very first dawn of historical investigation. 
This may be the cause why all n-ations acknowledge a great 
deluge, although they do not foresee a second ; but almost as 
universally expect a conflagration. It is, however, true, that 
the obvious inference to be drawn from the foregoing remarks, 
does not amount to a demonstration that mankind sprung from 
a single pair, or is of one species only, since there are numer- 
ous proofs, notwithstanding a permanent divergence, of the 
three types having been constantly in sufficient contact to 
learn great general traditions ; and the diluvian fact itself was 
of such magnitude, that it may have been actually witnessed 
by all. But then, the intention of an aboriginal unity of the 
species is at least so far indicated by the circumstance of 
Man's typical stock, having all a direct tendency to pass 
upwards towards the highest endowed, rather than to a lower 
condition, or to remain stationary. 

However, these remarks appertain solely to the traditional, 
geographical, and historical considerations, leaving untouched 
the structural phenomena, which the physiologist must weigh 
16 



182 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

and value according to their true importance, if so be, that the 
solution can thereby be effected, and bearing in mind how cir- 
cumscribed is our knowledge of the exceptional laws of nature. 

Without, therefore, coming to a peremptory conclusion in 
the present state of our knowledge, and having stated, so far 
as space and our means permitted, the principal conditions of 
the questions at issue, — questions which are, after all, 
in a great measure speculative, and whereof the result can 
in no shape have weight, where the moral obligations of Man 
regard his intercourse with fellow-men, — let us now proceed, 
first, to take a view of extinct abnormal races of our species ; 
and then, after noticing generalities, offer a somewhat detailed 
account of the three great typical forms which constitute the 
human family. 



ABNORML RACES OE MAN. 

GIANTS AND DWARFS. 



There were, in early antiquity, nations, tribes, and families, 
existing in nearly every part of the earth, whose origin and 
affinities appear so exceedingly obscure, that they have been 
transferred from physical realities to poetical mythology ; and, 
under the names of Titans, jiEooras, Hastikarnas, Danaras, 
Gins, Deeves, Thyrsen, Dwarfs, Swergi, Elves, and Fairies, 
regarded as personifications of phenomena in nature, although 
the inverse may be assumed with more probability, taking the 
pretended creations of mere fancy to be, in their origin, derived 
from physical realities more or less distorted. Such are the 
Giant and Dwarf races of mythology, romance, and history, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 188 

both sacred and profane.=^ They occur in the traditions of 
most nations ; and in both hemispheres their physical existence 
has.survived to within late ages; provided, in considering the 
question, we reject wild impossibilities, and adopt, in their 
stead, the subdued impressions compatible with the sobriety of 
nature, reducing them to an admissible stature, and view them 
more by the brutal ferocity of their manners, coupled with 
superior physical powers, than as absolute monsters in size 
and energy. At a period when animal development and mus- 
cular strength alone gave preeminence, it causes no wonder that 
the possessors of those qualities should abuse them. They 
were the source of the first desires of conquest for dominion s 
sake. They caused nations of more lofty structure, almost all 
arising among the nomad shepherds of temperate latitudes, — 
perhaps Shetae, Kheta, or tribes of milk-eating Scythse, — to 
wander southward, and establish supremacies over weaker 
constituted people ; first as conquerors, next as a privileged 
body, and last, as families, among the subjugated populations, 
till intermixture, or new conquerors, partially effaced the dif- 
ference of nationality. Thus, the myrmidons of Achilles may 
have been identical with the Penestes of Thessaly, the Helots 
of Sparta, the Charotes of Crete, Gymnetes of Argos, and 
Conephores of Sicyon, which were all tribes enslaved by 
foreign conquerors. Thus, with scarce an exception, Giants 
are ever found in juxtaposition with Dwarfs, who, in reality, 

* The extent of Giant legends is shown, from their having no satisfac- 
tory interpretation, except in the Scythian (Gothic) mythology; yet they 
are interwoven in all the earliest Greek mystical fables, without being 
intelligible to them. It seems as if there did exist, in Asia Minor, a 
particular version on this subject, for it is not a Greek mythus which has 
served the Jewish fabricators of their pretended Book of Enoch, where it 
treats of the commerce the Egregori, or fallen angels, had with women. 
The Giants beget Nephilim (Scandinavian Niflem,) and then Eliud 
(Elfen.) This is almost like the Edda, and may have been forged after 
the first captivity, when some Jews certainly visited Armenia. See Lac- 
tam, and Syncell. 



184 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

are the mere subjects of the other, and perhaps little inferior 
in stature, but certainly not so well supplied with food, and its 
consequent physical results. Hence, in the early ages, each 
party sees Giants among the leaders of the enemy, and only 
heroes in its own. Here, again, the rapid decline from con- 
quering tribes to single families, sinking still to individuals in 
a tribe of casual birth, who on some occasions were elected to 
be Roman emperors and Gothic chiefs. At a later period, they 
pass into a kind of brutal champions, kept for the sport or for 
the wars of chieftains in the middle and feudal ages, or for 
show, as certain men are still retained in Asia. Such Giants, 
in remote times, were the leaders and princes of idolatrous 
Egypt and Canaan, Apoplieis, Og, Goliath, &c. Such the first 
horsemen conquerors of the Bedoueen or Ethiopian Arabs, still 
obscurely designated in the national lore as fair and blue-eyed, 
till the Almighty turned them red, and then black, in punish- 
ment for their iniquity.^ And in mythological dualism, the 
red-haired Typhon, Baby, or Anteus, types drawn, equally with 
the Nephilim, from the red and fair-haired nations of Northern 
Asia, Gog and Magog (Haiguge and Magiuge, or the lofty and 
kindred lofty) Scythian tribes ; the Cyclopians and Lestrigons, 
the Thyrsen or Tyrheni, and Raseni. Such the deified heroes 
of Greece and of Etruria, always represented naked, like the 
Baresarks and Blaumans of the north, and Gaurs and Hunen 
of the Cehic and Teutonic nations. Such, finally, the Goths 
still figured on the brazen bas-reliefs of the cathedral gates at 
Augsburg,! and others lately discovered during some excava- 
tions in the Tyrol. Naked championship was a custom pre- 
served by Greeks, Gauls, Britons and Franks. So late as the 
year 1578, the Scottish Highlanders still fought naked against 
the Spaniards, at the action of Rymenant, near Mechlin. 

* See Tarikh Tebry. 

t These gates are certainly older than the eleventh century ; the male 
costume renders it likely that they really belonged to the palace of Theo- 
doric, at Ravenna, and the workmanship, that it is Byzantine. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 185 

The Baresarks were true Giants in their manners, in their 
hability to fits of phrensy, paroxysms already characterized in 
the deeds of Hercules, and like the Malay muck. In Moslem 
Asia were the Chagis, naked fanatics of giant stature, in the 
wars of the Crusades ; and there still remain Shumshurbas, 
Pehlwan, Kawasses, prize-fighters and wrestlers, often pos- 
sessed of immense muscular strength, kept in the pay of gran- 
dees, like the ancient Blaumen of the north, or like Orson in 
romance ; ^ besides these, a nation of primeval invaders of 
India, denominated Cattie, even now contains many warriors 
above six feet high, with a powerful muscular structure ; and 
revealing the origin whence it came, by the occasional presence 
of light-colored hair and gray eyes. 

As might be expected, physical Giants flourished longest in 
the colder temperate regions of our hemisphere, and are traced 
on the American continent, in the Mexican records, and high- 
nosed human forms in relief; while there exist also several 
tribes of American Indians, of very large stature, bearing, in 
general, marks of a partially distinct origin from the others, 
and still more from the Esquimaux. Again, in the cold 
extreme south, the Patagonians, likewise apparently differing 
from the more stunted Fuegians near them ; and the Araukas 
or Arookas, perhaps a mutation of the Indian Azooras, com- 
pared with the now extinct Flatheads ; and in both cases, fast 
disappearing, by reason of recent interunion with tribes of 
lower stature. South Africa, again, is in the possession of 
a lofty race of Caffres, with their champion, Aba-lafas, by the 
side of the dwarfish Bosjemans and Dokkos ; and in the moun- 
tains of northern China, men above six feet in height occur. 
But it is doubtful, whether, in any region, they do not all, 
directly or indirectly, spring from the original bearded stock 
of High Asia; therefore conquerors, and always a master race. 

* The chained giant Widolt with the gavelock, and Wade with the 
hammer, of the " Heldenbuch and Niebelungen" romances ; and the 
wrestler Charles, in " As you like it," belong to this class. 

16# 



186 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

They have been often and long cannibals, the earliest pos- 
sessors of horses ; and hence doubly meriting the Chinese name 
of horse-faced ; because, in addition to the first possession of 
the animal, all the lofty tribes of mankind have elongated 
features,^ 



THE DWAKFS. 

The races below a middle stature, frequently sinking to the 
form of Dwarfs, though seldom noticed but in conjunction with 
Giant tribes, are nevertheless much more numerous, more 

*Iii the list among the giant tribes of Syria alone, we find so many, 
that it is evident they were mere families, ruling, most likely, by con- 
quest, over Canaanitish tribes — Nephilim, Rephaim, Zuzim, Gibborim, 
Enakim, Zamzumim — some being distinguished by a malformation, 
having six fingers and six toes on the hands and feet ; of which there is 
a counterpart in the legends of India, Of the stature individuals may 
have attained, are the examples of Teutobochus, king of the Cymbers, 
whose head overtopped the spears, bearing trophies, in the triumph of 
Marius. The Emperor Maximinus exceeded eight feet ; Gabarus, an Ara- 
bian, in the time of Claudius, was nine feet nine inches high ; he was 
shown at Rome. In the reign of Augustus, Fusio and Secondilla were 
ten feet three inches in height ; their bodies were preserved and shown 
in the Sallustian Gardens. The Emperor Andronicus was ten feet high, 
according to Nicetas. Herodes Hercules was eight feet. Porus, six feet 
nine inches. Charlemagne, seven feet. George Castriot, or Skanderbeg, 
and George Freunsberg, nearly eight feet. Without, therefore, vouching 
for the exact measurements here given, we have still sufficient evidence 
to show, that, even in recent times, men of high stature, and of immense 
strength, have been historically conspicuous. The last trace, in Great 
Britain, of the Giant character, may be perceived in the Brolnech of the 
Hebrides, where they are called Gruag-aichs, (Gruage feachd,) a hairy 
bandit, concealed in the glens, and coming forth at night to plunder. 
During the operation of the Berlin and Milan decrees, we have personally 
known, in London, a Moor, usually named Gibraltar, captain of a neutral 
merchant ship, who was visible, at a great distance, in the Strand, head, 
breast and shoulders above the hats of the passing crowd, for he meas- 
ured six feet seven inches and a quarter, and was, in all respects, of the 
finest proportions, and of very considerable acquirements in languages, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 187 

generally diffused, and bear evidence of greater antiquity, 
wherever they are located. In some instances supplying, by 
ingenuity, the want of superior strength, they appear possessed 
of a certain progress in civilization greater than the conquer- 
ing tribes. Either from a kind of instinctive impulse, aiding 
natural intelligence, or from a docile spirit taking counsel, 
when the sense of physical inability prevails, from experience, 
or from instruction obtained in the Caucasian or even Mon- 
golic stocks, to which they appear directly or indirectly related 
— they are miners, metallurgists, smiths, and architects. 
When not driven to the woods and fastnesses, they have agri- 
cultural habits and superstitions of a low polytheistical charac- 
ter, but bearing evidence of systematic organization. These 
qualities, in conjunction with retiring defensive habits, have, 
in every region, conferred upon them mystical properties, 
generally marked in legends by more excessively reducing 
their stature. Thence, we have Indian mythological Balak- 
hilyas and Dwarapulas ; in Western Asia, Eliud, Peri, Gin; 
Celtic Dubh ; Northern Elfin ; Dwergar, always marked with 
Ouralian, Finnic, and Mongolian peculiarities; passing to 
more poetical fairies and pigmies, and then to true Fins, Lap- 
landers, Ostiaks, Samoyeds, Skrelings, and Myrmidons (of 
Achilles) afterwards named Elfin, in the woods of Thrace, and 
in the Hartz, Tyrolean, and Pyrenean mountains, where they 
are evidently the present Basques ; all attesting a similar 
dualism of fancy and fact, as was shown to exist in the Giants. 
They bear, however, beside their diminished stature, one com- 
mon character in physical history ; namely, that all the races, 
where by superabundant intermixture the distinctive marks are 
not effaced, are swarthy, with black hair and black eyes, grow- 
ing still darker in southern latitudes, till at length they become 
positively black, and the hair assumes a woolly character. 
Still, among these, some may be seen of ordinary stature, and 
others are stunted by habitual want of food. In this shape 
they are, in Asia, recorded to have existed under various 



188 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

legendary names ; and they now occupy many localities, but 
greatly debased by persecution. Indeed, their intermediate 
races, and still more and more, as they pass into the purer 
type of the Papua or Negro, have suffered, and continue to 
suffer, the unmitigated oppression of Caucasian superiority. 
In hot regions, where a powerful vegetation supplies the 
means, some of the most brutal tribes, such as the Vedas of 
Ceylon, Cookies, and Goands of Chittagong, east of the Bra- 
maputra, reside in trees, with little more contrivance, or the use 
of reason, than is evinced by Chimpanzees, the great apes of 
Africa. The Pouliahs of Malabar are no better, for they also 
form a kind of nests, in trees, beyond the reach of elephants 
and tigers, never associating with other nations, and not even 
permitted by the Hindoos to approach within one hundred 
yards. In open mountain country, these nations are more 
commonly troglodytes, dwellers in natural grottos ; and only 
in colder regions inhabitants of caves, excavated by their own 
industry. Mat tents, bark and skin huts, belong to a third 
class; and all are, or have been, cannibals ; but this appears to 
be a condition of existence which, at some time or other, was 
a habit in the highest and noblest races; for human sacrifices 
are always the last symptom of the expiring custom.^ 

To the east of the Indus we find the primeval nations of 
India sometimes typified, in mythological poems, by Hanuman 
and his monkey followers ; but historically shown to designate 
certain human tribes, since the Ranas of Odeypoor, heads of 
the Sesodya tribe, noblest of the Rajpoots, claims to be 
descended from the monkey god, which they pretend to prove 
by a peculiarly elongated structure of the coccyx in their 
family. The claim establishes much more clearly, that the 
Bheels of this region, primeval inhabitants, and still the most 
numerous portion of the population, were the chief means of 

* The Mexican sovereigns, in the time of Cortez, were still obliged, by 
law, to taste human flesh once in the year. The Goands do the same as 
a religious behest. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 189 

conquest in the wars of Lankadvvipe or Ceylon ; although they 
had many wars with their more western conquerors. The 
nation is further mixed up with Brahminical mythology ; for 
Bhil, the chief god of these foresters, slew Heri, one of the 
Pandoo family. Bheel likewise shot Chrishna with an arrow ; 
and the Kabandaz of the same primeval stock are related to 
have captured Kama. These, with many others, extending to 
beyond the Brahmaputra, may be considered as the physical 
Nagas of Sanscrit lore ; that name being still applied to the 
Cookies, whose inveterate cannibalism we have already men- 
tioned ; and other tribes of the same source, such as the Chong, 
extend to the extremity of the Malay peninsula."^' 

The nations of this class, mystified in the records of tradi- 
tion, mythology and legends, are again prominent in Southern 
Asia ; such as the Nagas and Nishadas, the Acephali of Greek 
authors, or Nimreks, Flatheads, Dombuks, Kakasiah, or Black 
Brethren ; in Persian lore, they are the objects of constant per- 
secution and extermination, by the earliest heroes of the first 
Iranian riding conqueror tribes — Husheng, Temurath Div- 
bend, &c., who sometimes vanquish Deeves, at others subdue 
the black tribes of Southern Persia, among whom there appear 
to have been one or more, whose foreheads were naturally, or, 
perhaps by art, greatly depressed — a character we shall soon 
see which occurs again in America. Bones and crania of men, 
with this conformation, have been found in Yemen;! profiles 
of Negroes, similarly conditioned, occur in Egyptian figures, 
published by Gau and others ; and the same frontal structure 
is observed in portraits referred to Caratchai (black Circassians, 
more probably Koords), allied to the Georgian stock, as if they 

* There are tribes of Negroes in Central Africa, likewise known by the 
name of Nagas ; and Cookies is again the name of the dark slaves of 
New Zealand. 

t Communicated by an officer who was employed in surveying that 
coast. ' 



190 THE HUMAN SPECIES. 

still bore testimony to the ancient intermixture with the black 
Colchians mentioned by Herodotus. 

To the west of Persia, the Chna or Canaanites, and Ethio- 
pian Arabs, before the inroads of the Giant Scythic horsemen, 
appear to have belonged to the same family of nations, extend- 
ing northward to the Colchians before named. To this day 
there remains a clan of crisp-haired Arabs on the Hieromax, 
east of the Lake of Tiberias, with Mongolic features, by profes- 
sion graziers, and, like the Hottentots, destitute of horses. To 
the west, in Africa, exclusive of the basis of the ancient Egyptian 
population, these abnormal tribes appear again to recur in the 
Hottentots, Bushwanas, Boshemans, and probably Dokkos, who 
may be the pigmies of ancient fable. Certain it is, that Hebra- 
isms and Semitic words, in proper names, &c., are abundant, 
from the mouth of the Nile to the Cape of Good Hop^e. Thus, 
the Indian Parbatia, Naga tribes, as well as the African Bush- 
wanas, have all indications of a remote intermixture with the 
Mongolic races ; and this character is retained in the earlier 
forms of their idols, always represented with crisped hair, 
oblique eyes, and ears detached from the side of the head ; 
and it may, perhaps, be traced in another direction, among the 
swarthy Kirguise. 



THE ATURIAN PALTAS OR FLATHEADS OF SOUTH AMERICA. 

Of all abnormal nations, the most singular were those Flat- 
heads of South America, whose bones and skulls now remain- 
ing furnish the only proof that a people with such strange 
conformation of the cranium have positively existed, and if we 
could now ascertain to what extent they likewise differed from 
the other typical forms of man, in the physiological conditions of 
structure of the softer parts ; such, for example, as the peculiar 
epidermis which Monsieur Flourens ascribes to the whole red 
race of America ; a quality which they, as the most normal of 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 191 

them, may have possessed to a still greater extent ; the ques- 
tion would assume a paramount interest — one, perhaps, more 
indicative of a distinct origin than any before noticed. 

Dr. Tschudi, describing this form, in his paper on the ancient 
Peruvians, remarks on the flattened occiput of the cranium, and 
observes, " that there is found, in children, a bone between the 
two parietals, below the lambdoidal suture, separating the latter 
from the inferior margin of the squamous part of the afterhead ; 
this bone is of a triangular shape, the upper angle between the 
ossa parietalia, and its horizontal diameter being twice that of 
the vertical. This bone coalesces at very different periods with 
the occipital bones, sometimes not till after six or seven years. 
In one child of the last mentioned age, having a very flat occi- 
put, the line of separation was marked by a most perfect suture 
from the squamous part, and was four inches in breadth by two 
in height." In remembrance of the nation where this confor- 
mation is alone found, the learned doctor denominated this bone 
Os. LiccB ; and he further remarks, that it corresponds to the 
Os. interparietalis of Rodentia and Marsupiata. 

These characters had been previously noticed by Mr. Frank- 
lin Bellamy, in a paper read by him to the Naturalist's Society 
of Devon and Cornwall, together with remarks which do not 
occur in Dr. Tschudi's communication, and are, nevertheless, 
of considerable importance. Comparing the cranium of two 
Titicaca children with skulls of Europeans of similar age, he 
found the frontal bone, the parietal and occipital bones, of the 
former, all considerably larger than the latter, elongating the 
head posteriorly, and throwing back the whole skull. This 
peculiarity was greatest in the cranium of an infant, not many 
days old, and lessening with growth in the older head ; there- 
fore it was not absolutely the result of bandages ; because the 
natural effect of these would tend more to increase than to 
decrease this result. From the small flattened forehead there 
could not be much space for the anterior lobes of the brain. 
The orbits were exceeding strong, with a somewhat elevated 



192 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

ridge, and the bones of the face harder and more solid than 
those which were produced for comparison. Dr. Lund like- 
wise observed the incisor or molar teeth of adults to be worn to 
fiat crowns — a character which occurs also in some ancient 
Egyptian jaws, and in heads of Guanche mummies. 

Here, again, we have characters so marked and decisive, that 
if the case were applied to a lower animal, systematists would 
not hesitate to place it as a separate species ; and the comments of 
physiologists who refuse their assent, not being in harmony with 
the admitted definitions, are more specious than convincing. It 
appears that the nation to which this form of head was peculiar, 
although with all the signs of very low intellectual faculties, 
had nevertheless made advances in civilization, which several 
of the Asiatic abnormal tribes have never even attempted to 
acquire. They built houses of large stones, in a pyramidal 
form, having an upper floor ; and, judging from, certain remains 
of their implements, and the contents of their graves, they were 
peaceable beings, most likely under the control of superiors not 
of the same stock, even from periods anterior to the formation of 
the Inca system of civilization. Mr. Pentland, we believe, first 
brought this singular race into notice, from skulls dug up near 
the shores of Lake Titicaca. Dr. Lund found others, even in a 
fossilized state, in the interior of Brazil. They were discovered 
in limestone crevices, in company with bones of different 
species of extinct animals ; proving both the remote age when 
this form of man already existed in America, and the extent of ' 
surface it is now known to have occupied. As the Budha, and 
several other idols of India, constantly represent Man with pro- 
files taken from a very low type ; so, in America, the Flathead 
form appears to have had a commanding influence in the ideal 
divine of the human head ; for the depression of forehead and 
occiput is found artificially reproduced by many tribes in both 
the southern and northern continents ; and specimens of these 
are observed among human remains, buried in the high sea 
sands of Peru itself ; but these last mentioned have, in general, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 193 

the occiput flattened obliquely, with but little apparent artificial 
anterior depression, evidently the effect of the back of the head 
having been secured to a board during infancy, as is still a 
practice in the north. The same form of the head is likewise 
observed in the high-nosed bas-reliefs of gods and heroes, both 
sculptured and tooled in the ancient temples and buildings of 
Yucatan and southern Mexico ; the representations of a people 
now likewise extinct, and by the indigenous tribes referred to 
the Giants of their primeval ages. The account is not without 
some probability, since the profiles belong to a race entirely 
distinct from the general population of the western hemis- 
phere, and is only conformable to the high-statured races of 
Asia; excepting some tribes of North America, who, by 
their traditions, came from the north-west, are still of a lofty 
growth, and bear the aquiline features which may prove 
their descent from a kindred race. Several of these, like 
the Osages, not uncommonly reaching the height of six feet 
eight inches ; but since the great disturbance of location, pro- 
duced by the European influx, they have latterly intermingled 
with other tribes, and are now fast effacing their particular 
characteristics. Perhaps the Yucatan Giant master-race disap- 
peared, when the Aztecs prevailed in Anahuac, from causes of 
a similar nature. Upon the, whole, the nations with depressed 
foreheads, when under the guidance, perhaps, of Gomerian 
masters, seem to have a community of other characters, such as 
constructiveness, which distinguish the Paltas of South Amer- 
ica, as well as the older Egyptians. 

KEMAINS OF OTHER ABNORMAL TRIBES. 

From the occasional destruction of whole tribes and races, 
which is sometimes caused, even in modern ages, by the sword,' 
by contagious diseases, or by new modes of life, and the intro- 
duction of vices before unknown, it is evident, that numerous 
populations of the human family have disappeared, without 
17 



194 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

leaving a record of their ancient existence. We may instance 
savages in the British Islands, who had flint knives, a kind of 
earthen pottery, and dwelt in caves. They were contempora- 
neous with hysenas and lost species, for their bones are found in 
the same deposits ; consequently, they are older than the 
Cynetse, who preceded the other Celtic colonies in this island. 

Continental Europe affords instances of several more, whose 
history is a blank, although there remain scattered families, 
with peculiar marks of distinction, in evidence of the anterior 
existence of communities of the same kind. Some, still extant, 
seem to have been objects of slander and persecution, under 
several successive social systems, denied the rights of common 
humanity, without a comprehensible cause, and even in defi- 
ance of the kindness which Christian pastors evinced for them. 
Others are still said to be untractable, notwithstanding the gov- 
ernment endeavors to make them adopt the manners and duties 
of civilized life. The caves, with human bones, in Quercy, 
already mentioned, belong to this class. Such are the Cagots 
of the south-east of France, by some asserted to derive their 
name from the contraction of Can-goth, because they are a resi- 
due of the Goths, who, being anciently Arians, were held in de- 
testation by their neighbors ; they were stigmatized as lepers, and 
refused entrance into church by the common doors, &c. This 
people, either an ancient residue, or latterly forced to a vagrant 
life, extended, under many different names, to Guienne, Beam, 
Bretagne, and la Rochelle, being sometimes confounded with 
Gypsies, although they were known before the arrival of the 
latter, and even enjoined not to appear abroad without the 
mark of a goat's foot sewed upon the outer garment. King 
Louis XVI. first ameliorated their condition, and the French 
revolution finally swept away all the remaining legal dis- 
abilities.^ 

In the forests of ancient Dauphiny, there exist also relics of 

* There are recent accounts of this people, written by Baron Ramon, as 
well as ancient notices by Ochenartus, " Vasconioe notitia." Bel Forest 
and Paul Merula. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 195 

another population, unrecorded in history, but commonly- 
ascribed to a Saracen or Moorish origin, stragglers of those 
who invaded France in the seventh and eighth century, and 
were unable to escape. There were Caucones in the Pelopon- 
nesus, Conconi (drinkers of horse blood), and Cheretani, in the 
Eastern Pyrenees ; but they and the Almoga varies have been 
absorbed. 

The Chuvash, still found scattered in the provinces of Kasan, 
Sembirsk, and Orenburg, in Russia, are a still more ^obscure 
race of men. They seem to be the remnant of a semi-brute 
population, which was scattered on the arrival of the more 
intellectual Caucasians. In mental capacity, the Chuvashea 
are reported to be inferior even to the Ostiaks and Samoyedes. 
They live without taking the slightest notice of the world 
around them, in a condition little elevated above the orang-- 
outang. While increase and activity is everywhere witnessed 
in their vicinity, they alone remain stationary ; industry and 
civilization excite in them no desires, no wish to be partakers 
of prosperity ; none ever show inclinations to barter, or to be 
stimulated by gain to increase the means of comfort or of per- 
sonal happiness, still less to learn any trade. Their counte- 
nances are stupid, their habits incurably lazy, and their religion, 
for they have a worship, the most degrading idolatry. Their 
language is barbarously imperfect, and their manners and 
customs are still more revolting. The Assassins, Ansarie, 
Batenians, Dozzim, Laks, and Yezeedis of South-Western 
Asia, still persecuted, but not wholly exterminated, are tribes 
of primeval origin, variously mixed. 

The Gypsies, Zingari, Sinde, may be of the same stock as 
the Tschinganes at the mouth of the Indus, who are them- 
selves a tribe of mixed oriental Negroes and Caucasians, and 
are likewise connected with the Gungas or Indian Gypsies and 
Laubes of Africa, who may all be instanced as examples of the 
development of human beauty, whenever the typical races are 
crossed; for, while this result is impressed on the whole of 



196 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

the Asiatic stems, the Laubes, dwelling in the Jaloff country, in 
western Africa, though of the Zingara race, are remarkably 
ugly and diminutive, probably because they are unmixed even 
with the Negro tribes around them. In one characteristic they 
all unite, namely, to be, by predilection, wanderers without 
a home ; not graziers nor cattle-dealers, but tinkers and pilfer- 
ers. Another outcast race, in Central Africa, are the Cumbrie 
Blacks, whose origin is still less known. Though they are 
considered to be genuine Negroes, they are not permitted to 
have a national existence, but are treated as slaves by all the 
other tribes in Yaouri and Engarski. This fact is sufficient to 
prove them of a distinct origin, and their present character to 
be superinduced by the lust and lawlessness of conquest and 
oppression. 

The Guanches, perhaps identical with the ancient inhabi- 
tants of Fernando Po, both sallow nations ; the first latterly, the 
second not yet extinct, appear on the skirts of Africa, as rem- 
nants of a race of tenants of the soil, before the expansion of 
the Negroes. 

The cannibal Ompizee of Madagascar, or copper-colored sav- 
ages, who fed upon each other till they are nearly or perhaps 
now entirely destroyed, may have belonged to the same stock, 
for they have no national affinities with any other people of the 
island. We may mention here the Benderwars, a Joand tribe 
on the Nerbudda, who devour their aged and sick in honor of 
Kali ; the Ogres or Gholes of Eajahstan, known by the name 
of Rakshassas, Pisachas, or Bhutas, Aghori, Mardikohrs, &c., 
feeders on human carrion, whose habits are already mentioned 
by Ctesias, and are still not entirely extinct. Other tribes 
there are, equally aberrant, almost as degraded in mind and 
form, but caused by the wretched conditions of their existence, 
or by an apathy of character, which no force of example or 
change of circumstances seems to affect; such are the Samang 
Dwarfs of the Malayan mountains, and the black Inagta of the 
island of Lasso, whose stature seldom exceeds four feet eight 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 197 

inches. It will be an interesting object of consideration for 
anatomists, who may be placed in favorable conditions for 
observation, to examine the brain of children belonging to these 
races in the foetus, and particularly after birth, as it may be 
expected to display a still more imperfect state than that of a 
Negro infant. 



The foregoing discussions have chiefly had for object, to 
oflfer some points relating to the physical history of man, 
which, it appears, have not as yet been viewed in the light 
here shown ; perhaps, because the facts relating to them are 
uninteresting and few, or are concealed under a dense veil of 
tradition and figurative mystification, with only occasional 
glimpses that can be appreciated, and therefore difiicult to 
grasp, and uncertain in the application ; still, when collected 
into somewhat of a series, give consistency to conjecture, and 
frequently bestow upon it most, if not all, the conditions of his- 
torical truth. As we proceed, names of nations and tribes 
above indicated among the unassignable in the family cogna- 
tions of man, may again appear with more detail, clothed in 
the form they seem to have passed into, and become known 
and well-defined races. 
17# 



198 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



THE TYPICAL STOCKS. 

COMPARISON OF PHYSICAL POWERS, AND STRUCTURAL DIF- 
FERENCES OF THE TYPICAL STOCKS. 

Let us now proceed to review the structural characteris- 
tics of man, in their general application to the distinction of 
species, varieties, or stocks. Among these. Camper's observa- 
tions on the facial angle which distinguishes the three typical 
races, taken in a general view, are most important. The human 
head, seen vertically, or from above, conceals, in the Caucasian 
form, nearly every part of the facial surface ; whilst the same 
view of the woolly-haired type demonstrates the narrowness 
and obliquity of the forehead, by exposing the greater part of 
the face. A smaller obliquity may be observed in the cranium 
of the Mongolic stock, but differing from both the preceding by 
the lateral expansion of the cheek-bones. Hence the facial 
angles, taken by drawing a line from the opening of the ear to 
the nostril, bisected by another line dropped from the promi- 
nent part of the forehead to the most advanced edge of the 
upper jaw, taken on the profile view of the head, produce an 
angle, which, according to the number of degrees it is found to 
open in Camper's hypothesis, advances the forehead towards a 
vertical structure, gives prominence to the anterior lobes of the 
brain, and consequently develops intellectual capacity. But 
this criterion, though generally true in all mammalia, if the 
question be referred to man, is liable to the objection, that 
whole races have the orbital crests, at their junction on the 
lower edge of the frontal, so prominent as to prevent the facial 
lines touching the forehead, which from that point falls sud- 
denly, both in the natural structure of the flat-headed nations 
of Asia, and in the heads by nature or artificially depressed, 
such as occur in America. In other respects, where the facial 
line can be drawn fairly, there is no doubt of the general cor- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 199 

rectness of the principle, provided a vertical view upon the 
skull, according to Blumenbach, and another upon its base — 
the lower jaw being removed as recommended by Professor 
Owen — be likewise employed to form a comparison. The 
highest intellectual bearded nations present, by the Camperian 
method, individuals rising to eighty-five and even nearly to 
ninety degrees. These are, for example, occasionally observed 
in the Teuto-Sarmatian nobles, and, more rarely, in other 
European nations ;^ but beyond the perpendicular line of fore- 
head, there occur only indications of morbid development, and 
ideal exaggerated profiles of Greek divinities, whose over- 
hanging brows, and deep-seated eyes, produce the eflfect of a 
calm shadowy frown, which we learn to view as an attribute 
of majesty and conscious power. Much, however, and indeed 
the essential, in all mental constitution, must depend upon the 
proportions of the cerebral structure being in sufficient harmony 
for their rational operation ; and this condition is found pre- 
served, without material injury to ratiocination, where both the 
anterior and posterior portions of the brain are distorted by 
artificial pressure in infancy, or where the volume is small, by 
the retreating low angle of the forehead ; whether or not the 
case applies to a whole race, or to an occasional individual 
among the bearded tribes. 

It appears that individual interunions between the typical 
races not only tend to the superior development of form and 

*In a series of portraits, representing Polish, East Prussian, Silesian, 
Bohemian, and Moravian nobles, they occur frequently. The late Count 
Harach, from our personal knowledge, was remarkable for this feature ; 
i. e., a lofty and broad, very nearly vertical forehead; and it must b- 
added, that many so distinguished, were conspicuous as statesmen and wa^ 
riors, probably all as ambitious men. It were to be wished that portrait 
painters paid more minute attention to this object — we mean, placing the 
aperture of the ear in relation to the nostril. It is important to them for 
the sake of truth, and to the physiologist for the same reason ; since, 
without accuracy, he cannot draw fair conclusions from painted human 
likenesses. 



200 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

capacity m the offspring, but that the same tendency continues 
to operate between different tribes ; the constant crossing of 
Celtic with Teutonic blood, upon a Perso-Arabian basis, being 
perhaps a principal cause of the early progressive civilization 
of Southern and Western Europe; and the stationary charac- 
ter, chiefly observed in the Mongolic race, being a result of the 
want of the same acting cause. Notwithstanding the desire 
of the beardless type to violate its own prohibitory laws, inter- 
marriage with Caucasian women is decidedly more sterile than 
the union of the bearded and woolly-haired sexes. Where 
human laws prevent intermarriage, nature endeavors to be 
avenged through the more powerful operation of the passions, 
by means of interunion with foreign slaves, by abduction, and 
by child-stealing; whence results a certain restoration of the 
balance. There are localities in Europe, where the frequent 
intermarriages of the same families produce constantly indi- 
viduals defective in constitution, mind, or limbs. 

Without intermixture of races, the ratiocination of mankind 
appears inoperative to certain particulars in life. Nomad 
nations may not wander with their cattle solely from inclina- 
tion. Necessity is the first cause. But there are tribes, such 
as we have already named, who are not to be taught by 
example, or by the advantageous results of undertaking certain 
things that their inclinations reject. The Jews probably never 
were a truly agricultural people, working with their own 
hands. The Veneti, Heneti, Gwyniad, or Ventas, were always 
the real commercial pedlers of antiquity. The Armenians are 
nationally merchants, from London to Bokhara. Neither were 
ever warriors ; they traded solely ; and the last mentioned con- 
tinued to act on the same principle. They lived under the 
shield of the strongest warlike people that would protect them ; 
the first, under Etruscans, Gauls, and Romans, till the fall of 
the Western Empire ; and the second, under still existing gov- 
ernments. Some nations decline the use of horses ; others 
abhor the plough or a sea life. The Gypsies are always 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 201 

tinkers. These predilections must therefore depend on modi- 
fications of the brain. 

That the volume of brain is in relation to the intellectual 
faculties, is clearly proved by Dr. Morton's researches, who, 
having filled, for this purpose, the cerebral chamber of skulls 
belonging to numerous specimens of the Caucasian, Mongolian, 
Malay, American, and Ethiopian (Negro) stock, with seeds of 
white pepper, found the first the most capacious, and the Ethi- 
opian the smallest; though there may be some doubt whether 
the Negro crania that served for his experiment, were not, in 
part at least, derived from slaves of the Southern States of 
North America, who, being descended from mixed African 
tribes, and much more educated, have larger heads than new 
Negroes from the coast. We have personally witnessed the 
issue of military chacos (caps) to the 2d West India Regiment, 
at the time when all the rank and file were bought out of 
slave ships, and the sergeants alone being in part white, men 
of color, Negroes from North America, or born Creoles, and it 
was observed, that scarcely any fitted the heads of the privates 
excepting the two smallest sizes ; in many cases robust men, 
of the standard height, required padding an inch and a half in 
thickness, to fit their caps ; while those of the non-commis- 
sioned officers were adjusted without any additional aid. 
Though, on one hand, it is here stated that the Negroes from 
the coast of Africa were, in all probability, still less favored 
than the measurements of Dr. Morton proved ; it is, on the 
other, equally true, that the progress of development, and the 
elevation of the forehead, in the mixed offspring between the 
woolly-haired and white races, is often effaced in a second 
generation. It is so always much sooner than the apparently 
insignificant characters of the color of the skin, and the crisp- 
ness of the hair, which are never totally obliterated till after the 
fourth generation, when the African character may be deemed 
absorbed. It is advanced as established, that an accidental 
effect in the external characters of an individual may become 



202 ~ NATURAL HISTORY OF 

permanent in a race. But accidental appearances must have 
a cause, and terminate when that cause disappears. Men 
covered with hair, or with a horny skin, may reproduce this 
character in their offspring ; but then it is exceptional and dis- 
appears in the next generation. Albinism is more evident, 
and therefore believed to be more frequent in the woolly-haired 
races of man ; but in the sandy plains of the north-west of 
Europe, the same appearances occur, though not quite with the 
marks of disease ; it is mere absence of coloring matter in the 
system. Among Mongolic nations it is unknown, or very 
rare, and it is equally so with the aboriginal tribes of America. 
The stature of mankind is unquestionably influenced by the 
adequate supply of wholesome food ; and hence the civilized 
nations of moderate climates are more generally of an equal 
standard than barbarians and savages, among which the 
hunter and pastoral nomad tribes arrive at the greatest stature. 
But, in these cases, a Caucasian element may be expected to 
be present, whether we take the Miao-tze of China, the 
Caffres of Eastern Africa, the Patagonian Araucas of South 
America, or the Creeks and other tribes in the north. For, if 
some latent cause of this kind did not produce the difference, 
all other tribes in the same climate, and under similar condi- 
tions of food and mode of life, would acquire a similar height; 
yet this is not the case ; and it is even known, in both the 
Americas, that the union of two tribes, differing in this respect, 
has produced, in one generation, the disappearance of a 
superior growth. Ancient history likewise represents the 
northern Gauls (Belg£e), and the Teutonic nations, as far 
superior in stature to the civilized Romans, though they do not 
appear iu their barbarous habits to have been better fed than 
the tall tribes of North America. In gracefulness of propor- 
tion, the American mixed white races with Negroes, both of 
French and British, and still more, of Spanish origin, yield to 
none in any part of the world ; and it is a mistaken notion to 
believe in the assertion that the standard contour of beauty 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 203 

and form differs materially in any country. Fashion may 
have the influence of setting- up certain deformities for perfec- 
tions, both at Pekin and at Paris, but they are invariably apol- 
ogies which national pride offers for its own defects. The 
youthful beauty of Canton would be handsome in London ; 
and the Tahtar nations, in the days of their conquering career, 
married the daughters of semi-Caucasian nomad princes, or 
notoriously selected, for their chiefs, the same class of 
European or Caucasian forms as they still purchase from Cir- 
cassia and Persia, Affghanistan, Cashmere, and India.^ Lud- 
dee, the young wife of Abba Thule, chief of the Pelew Islands, 
was handsome on the Caucasian model; so are all the beau- 
ties of Malay or other blood in the South Sea Islands ; the 
most admired young females among the Arookas and the 
Caribs. The Chippeways likewise have many beauties ; and 
so was Harriet, the belle of Lorette Sauvage, a Huron village 
near Quebec. In all these cases, both Europeans and natives 
agreed. 

Human growth, according to Professor Quetelet, is not com- 
pleted until the twenty-fifth year, at least in Belgium; but 
this period is supposed to be shorter in other countries ; cer- 
tainly so within the tropics, and in very warm regions, where 
development and decay are universally allowed to be . more 
rapid. 

Weight is another element in the consideration of races, as 
this quality materially influences physical strength, and conse- 
quently bestows confidence, enterprise and success. An 
instrument, the dynamometer, has been invented to measure 
the relative scale, and they have shown savage nations to be 

* It is from these sources that the energetic innervation was principally 
derived, which gave birth to the great Toorkee Mongole conquerors, both 
in the west and in China. Such, for example, was Alancona, wife of Pe- 
souka Bahander, of the Niron Toorkee tribe of smiths ; Purtan Congine, 
daughter of Conjorat Khan, the ambitious wife of Genghis, and Toora- 
kina Catan, wife of Octai. 



204 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Strong in proportion to the abundance and wholesomeness of 
the food they possess ; but in all cases hitherto examined, 
civilized Europeans surpassed them;"^ and, it appears, English 
exceeded French ; or perhaps more correctly, the Teutonic 
stock surpassed the Celtic, both in strength and weight, 
although the Irish Celts are said to be taller and heavier than 
the English Saxons. As yet, no great stress can be laid on 
results obtained from an imperfect instrument, partial inquiries, 
and questionable nationalities; still, enough is determined 
to reject an opinion, often prevalent, that the moderns are 
degenerate when compared with their ancestors. The conclu- 
sion is further controverted, by an experiment made at Good- 
rich Court, where the splendid collection of ancient armor is 
classified, with rigorous attention, both to date and nation, by 
Sir Samuel R. Meyrick, the enlightened and munificent pos- 
sessor. Two gentlemen, one of middle stature, with ample 
chest and shoulders, and the other somewhat taller, but of 
more slender structure, endeavored to find armor sufficiently 
large to fit either one or the other, and failed, in a collection 
where, we believe, they had a choice of upwards of sixty com- 
plete suits of plate, all defensive armor, which nevertheless had 
been worn, in preceding centuries, by chivalry, and persons of 
distinction, in England, France, Germany, and Italy. Hence 
King John, Petit Jean de Saintre, the Constable of Bourbon, 
the Prince of Conde, (" ce petit homme tant joli,") and Nicolo 
Piceinino, were not the only valiant men of small proportions 
in the feudal ages. At the present period, the British upper 
classes are probably of higher stature than the aristocracy of 
any other civilized people ;t but taken nationally, the Prussian 

* The strongest North American Indians are asserted to fail against 
the ordinary power of wrist of Europeans ; that is, when each side place 
the right elbow to elbow, and cross the fingers through each other's hand, 
striving to bend the opposing wrist back. The fact was established by 
the 60th Regiment in Canada. 

t Mr. Laurence, in his work on the Natural History of Man, may have 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 205 

and all the fair-haired natives of the north-west of Europe, are 
of greatest height, since the standard size for the military 
service is above that of any other people in Europe. Northern 
Chinese, or Highland Tahtars, we have been informed by a 
general officer who served in the late war, were found to be 
fully equal, in stature and bulk, to our stoutest grenadiers ; but 
we have since learned, from another officer, that when these 
men appeared on the field, they were found to be Miao-tze, — 
that is, a people of Caucasian or Caucaso-Malay origin. 

Elasticity of frame is, however, a quality very distinct from 
weight and strength. The Caucasian of Europe is trained to 
harder manual work than other races ; but it may be doubted 
whether he could ride continuously, like the Turkish Tahtar 
messengers, or Persian Chuppers ; or whether he could sustain 
the fatigue of such unceasing marches as the aboriginal Ameri- 
can warriors perform, or run on foot with the speed of Bechuana 
Hottentots, or even compete with New Hollanders, the most 
slender-limbed race on earth. When, therefore, comparative 
trials of strength are made with other nations, the selection of 
the modes should not be more than one half in favor of those 
which Europeans are most inured to. Captain Cook found his 
seamen unequal to a boxing contest with Hapaceans. There 
have been Negroes able to dispute the sparring championship 
of the English fancy ring ; and beside the porters of Constanti- 
nople and Smyrna, celebrated for prodigious strength of loins, 
there are Pehlwans, professed wrestlers, in middle Asia, whose 
physical powers are certainly equal to any Europe can produce. 
It is not by comparing French or British seamen, as Peron did, 
with natives of Van Diemen's Land, New Hollanders, or 
Timorians of torrid regions, — all notoriously of small bone 
and light weight, — that a true estimate can be obtained of the 

easily found Englishmen of six feet and more in height, and Negroes 
below that standard ; but had he visited tropical market-places, and com- 
pared the stature of our planters and sailors by that of the Negroes, he 
would most likely have found the white men the smallest. 

18 



206 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

relative strength of savages. The experiment should be tried, 
likewise, with Caffres, Patagonians, Araucanos, and Osages, 
notwithstanding these nations train their powers more to active 
exertions of body than to heavy manual, toil ; for if the trial 
were made with women, it may be expected that, in most cases, 
Europeans would be inferior to savages, excepting those who 
are particularly destitute of food ; or if it were made between 
populations of the bearded race, such, for example, as French 
Canadian boatmen and English laborers, there is no doubt that 
the last mentioned would as greatly surpass the first, in the toil 
of agricultural labor, as they would be outdone by them in the 
lasting exertions of poling, — that is, pushing boats up the cur- 
rent of rapid streams by the help of poles. 



INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CHARACTERS OF THE TYPICAL 

STOCKS. 

Confining the number to three, because they alone are pos- 
sessed of the extremes of difference in structure and color, and 
because they have received, as before stated, centres of exist- 
ence where the others cannot predominate, we shall find pro- 
ceeding from them sub-typical stems, always interposed at the 
geographical points of contact between the two nearest types ; 
and, further on, third and fourth branches, or races and nations, 
consisting of more divergent forms, which have combined the 
characters of all the three in greater or less proportions ;^ while 
over the whole are spread adventitious distinctions, sprung 
from changes of climate, latitude, food, mode of life, and the 

* The ancients, in several of the trinal combinations which play in 
their doctrines, seem to have an allusion, perhaps unwittingly, so far as 
the Greeks were concerned, to the three typical stocks, in the evocation 
of Hecate, (a Scythian divinity) ; for the ceremony demanded a waxen 
triform image, whereof one was to be white, the second red, and the 
third black. These indications are significant on a spot such as Tauris, 
notwithstanding the usual explanationj which refers them to the triune 
doctrines of India. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 207 

innumerable other influential conditions of existence, — con- 
ditions that affect, though in a less degree, the typical structure, 
the external appearance of Man, and that acquire a deep-seated 
power over his intellectual faculties, in their possible develop- 
ment, and, consequently, also in their contraction, externally 
observable. Therefore, in reasoning upon them, we must be 
guarded against certain prepossessions of self-esteem, which 
the educated man of the bearded stock, and, indeed, mankind 
in general, is apt to entertain of strangers ; for the same ten- 
dency is ever at work between nation and nation, and between 
every sub-division of the human family, however formed. In 
the description of characters, scientifically taken, we can only 
point out what they are, without having the power of stating 
what may be eventually evolved ; and though already assured, 
even with the apparently most degraded nations, that moral 
rectitude is fully understood, nay, often put in practice, by the 
savage, to the disgrace of the rapacious Christian who visits 
his abode ; not ashamed to use knowledge for the purpose of 
deception and illusions for his own gain, though the conse- 
quences carry destruction to his victims. When bearing in 
mind what our own remote progenitors were, we must allow 
that all men, and all races, bear within them the elements of a 
measured perfectibility, probably as high as the Caucasian; 
and it would be revolting to believe that the less gifted tribes 
were predestined to perish beneath the conquering and all- 
absorbing covetousness of European civilization, without an 
enormous load of responsibility resting on the perpetrators. 
Yet their fate appears to be sealed in many quarters, and 
seems, by a preordained law, to be an effect of more mysterious 
import than human reason can grasp.=^ 

* There is, however, a great distinction to be drawn between conquest 
that brings amelioration with it to the masses of the vanquished, and 
extermination, which leaves no remnant of a broken people. It seems the 
first condition is only awardable to the great typical stocks, effecting 
incorporations among themselves ; the second almost invariably the lot of 
the intermediate, which, in most favorable cases only, are absorbed. 



208 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

As, therefore, we cannot attain, in our state of knowledge, 
satisfactory conclusions on this head, it becomes the duty of all 
to assert, at least, the rights of humanity, in their indisputable 
plenitude, although to us, in particular, as mere naturalists, it 
is a bounden duty to confine ourselves to known historical and 
scientific facts. 



PRIMEVAL LOCATION OF MAN, OR POSITION OF THE TYPI- 
CAL STOCKS. 

As the more detailed characters of the typical stocks, their 
real or primaeval location, and the diffusion of subsequent races, 
cannot be readily understood without some retrospect of the 
geographical conditions of the earth, not only with regard to 
the convulsions already mentioned, but likewise as they bear 
upon the position of the great chains of mountains, seas, and 
deserts, and the direction of leading rivers, it is important not 
to overlook them, wherever the influence they must have exer- 
cised in the question under review is clearly ascertainable. 

Mankind, when first it becomes historically known, is already 
diffused over the greater j!trt of the eastern hemisphere, and, 
probably, far beyond it, even to the western ; yet it appears 
to have departed from the vicinity of a common centre, or, at 
least, to have primsevally formed several stocks, clustered in 
the vicinity of that high central region of Asia which com- 
prises the external rampart, and, perhaps, interior of the vales 
of Thibet, and the so-called Khangai=^ of the Gobi desert; for 
this was, approximately, either the seat of Man's first develop- 
ment, so far as it can be now traced, or the space where a por- 
tion of human beings found safety, when convulsions and 
changes of surface, which may have swept away a more 
ancient zoology, had passed over the earth, and were introduc- 
tory to a new order of things. 

* Khangai, or oases, verdant river courses, and lakes, which occur in 
several places. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 209 

The Gobi or Shamoo region is a true Shinar or Djeen, a 
series of sandy deserts, intersected, at great distances, by moun- 
tain ridges, and not unfrequently by rivers ending in lakes, 
which all naturally tend to separate small populations, and to 
keep them isolated so long as numbers do not compel the 
inmates to seek for more abundant subsistence. This state of 
being urges Man equally to a shepherd's life and to a begin- 
ning of agricultural industry. Around this space can be traced 
several high mountain systems, bearing the names of God, of 
Heaven, and of Snow (purity) ; for these are often expressed 
by the same words, such as Himaleh, Thianchan, Bog, &c., 
and mythical traditions, without geographical localities, where 
Pagan nations, at various times, centred the habitations of their 
gods, or progenitors, in spaces of eternal snow, such as Mount 
Meru, Kaf, or the oldest Olympus, find here in Bogtag, Hima- 
vali, and the peak of Himavahn, real geographical positions. 
It is there we find the Chumutaru peak of snow ; and Somero 
purbut, created by Mahadeo, for his retreat and throne, when, 
like another Jupiter, he fled from Ravan ; the Hindoo diluvian 
Titan is clearly the snowy group at the sources of the Ganges. 
In this high region are the local sites commemorative of tradi- 
tions more than once repeated, at successive more distant 
stages, in proportion as the earliest nations moved further from 
their original common centre, or mythical tales spread onwards 
with time. There is Naubundana, — perhaps Dhawalaghiri, 
— where the patriarch god himself, in the form of Kapila, con- 
ducted the ark, and secured it to the rock, according to Hindoo 
lore ; and, on the north, where the Tahtar legend places 
Nataghi, the boatman god of the mountain, with his family, in 
one of the peaks of Altai ; for it is not a fact which always 
marks a pagan source, as has been remarked, when Man's 
existence is made to commence after the diluvian cataclysis. 
There is constantly a record of antecedent existence, though 
not a history, among early nations. It is variously told, but 
18^ 



210 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

not the less the same in substance, in both hemispheres, and in 
the South Sea Islands. 

Although, in Central Asia, no very distinct evidence of a 
general diluvian action, so late as to involve the fate of many 
nations, can be detected, still there cannot be a doubt that, with 
scarce an opposable circumstance, all Man's historical dogmatic 
knowledge and traditionary records, all his acquirements, 
mventions, and domestic possessions, point to that locality, as 
connected with a great cataclysis, and as the scene where 
human development took its first most evident distribution. 

The animals subdued for household purposes, by the earliest 
nations, are found upon or around it in all directions, — like 
the Dog, universally spread where Man resides ; and the Hog, 
found radiating from points, where the wild species occur, from 
south-east to north-west; the Horse, Ass, and Camel, in direc- 
tions originally commencing from the west side ; so, again, the 
Ox, Sheep, and Goat, still existing wild in the form of more 
than one species on the same borders ; whilst even the Ele- 
phant walked once through the more southern woods ; and the 
Wild Cat, similar to the European, now haunts the same, and 
prowls far onwards in the north. Of birds, Gallinacea, all 
originating in the south-east of Asia ; several kinds of poultry 
are wild in the woods ; and one domesticated species, at least, 
was carried, in Man's earliest migrations, onward to Egypt and 
the west of Europe, as well as to the furthest islands in the 
South Seas ; perhaps even to Chili, before the arrival of the 
Spaniards. 

On the western side, at least, are found the parent plants of 
many fruit-bearing trees and shrubs, now naturalized in Europe; 
the walnut, chestnut, filbert; the apple, medlar, cherry, and 
almost all the wild and cultivated berries, and the vine at no 
great distance.^ Wheat and barley, of more than one variety 

* The vine is now cultivated about Llassa, in Thibet, 29° 40" north 
latitude, and may also be indigenous. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 211 

or species, occur on the skirts of the same central region, some 
thriving at more than 10,000 feet of elevation in the Himalayas 
and in China, with buckwheat and oats on the plains of the 
north-west, and onions, turnips, &c., growing wild in many 
places ; wild flax and hemp on the northern plains ; and, in 
Cashmere, the valleys even possess edible gourds, pumpkins, 
and melons, whereof one or two species flourish in the arid 
deserts ; even the lotus, celebrated in Egypt, was derived from 
some part of India. 

It would be vain to look for so many primitive elements of 
human subsistence, in a social state, in any other portion of the 
globe. Nearly all of them were originally wanting in the 
western Caucasus, and the civilized development of Egypt 
could not have occurred without the possession of wheat, bar- 
ley, flax, the leek, garlic, onion, and many other objects, all 
foreign to Africa.^ These can have been brought westward 
only by colonies practically acquainted with their value. In 
the devious course of the nations moving westward, the mul- 
berry, apricot, and the date palm, may have proved an early 
resource to the traveller; and, further on, the olive, fig-tree, 
and plum, were, no doubt, luxuries ; but the sorbus, and, more 
certainly, the citron, were a later importation from beyond the 
Indus, as well as the orange, which came from China last of 
all. Kice was, most probably, a substitute for corn, first per- 
haps cultivated in China, or Indo-China, where the requisite 
heat and watery soil naturally present themselves.! 

On the west side of Thibet is the huge table land of Pamere, 

* Triticum salivum ; Triticum spelta, still wild near Hamadan ; Hor- 
deum vulgare, in Northern India and Tahtary ; Allium cepa, &c., wild 
in various places. 

t In Egytian representations of tribute, brought by subjugated nations 
from "far countries," it is pleasant to remark, among many objects, liv- 
ing plants and shrubs, carefully transported for replanting, and, by those 
accompanying them, are evidently from an eastern region. These figures 
likewise bear the Swasteca, or a similar cross, indicative of a symbolical 
creed. 



212 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

the back-bone of the world, not yet distinctly marked in maps ; 
a more real umbilicus of the earth than any other of the sacred 
centres of primaeval society. Here is the mysterious Lake 
Surikol, at the source of the Oxus, where local belief pretends 
that the Jaxartes and the Indus have both affluents rising at no 
great distance, while the Kash-gar, on the east of the summits, 
flows towards the rising sun. To the west are the mountains 
of Northern Hindoo-Koosh, the probable seat of the first Celto- 
Scythae, for in these regions was afterwards established a 
Macedonian empire, which, without an original consanguinity 
with the local nations, could not have lasted even for one gen- 
eration. 

Most primaeval nations have traditions of a primordial city 
of the gods, of the progenitor heroes of each stem, — a Babel, 
Nagara, Pasagardse, or Asgard. It appears that Balkh (Kham- 
balu^), is, at least, the most prominent, so far as the western 
and southern nations are concerned, notwithstanding that the 
present Bamean, with the interminable troglodyte habitations 
around, may well represent the spot where increased popula- 
tion, finding insufficient food, would be excited to discord ; and 
an appeal to force would naturally end in the weaker party 
being driven to exile or dispersion. 

Thougli other traditions may be more purely Caucasian, 
mention may be made of some, perhaps, no less important. 
Among these is the very ancient name of Neel-ab, Blue River, 
given to the Indus by the earliest Semitic tribes in the east, 
and similarly applied to the Nile of Egypt, causing that con- 
fusion in geographical ideas which believed the river of Africa 
to come, by some unknown way, from the east, until the expe- 
dition of Alexander cleared up the error. It is curious that the 
Sutledge of the Punjab is still the Blue River; pointing to 
Cashmere (Kaspiapyrus) as the first seat of the Perso-Arabian 
races. 

* The first Cambalu, or rather Khan-balk, is not Pekin. Samarcand, 
the first horse-fair, and thence commercial city, is at no great distance. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 213 

The oldest form of social existence was parental, or by fam- 
ilies, which soon expanded into the patriarchal, still retained by 
nomad pastoral nations. With others it broke up by the sep- 
aration of the priestly dignity from the head paternity of tribes. 
As soon as dogmas and political considerations multiplied, the 
struggle between authority by birth, and the suggestions of 
expediency, began; for ambition pleaded the claims of valor, 
justifying them by surrounding dangers and the inefficiency of 
nonage ; the pontificate demanded an undying adequacy of 
purpose, upheld by sanctity of example : arguments which, 
being repeated as the social existence spread wider, hierarchies 
were instituted, and the rights of pleading the cause of jus- 
tice, or the art of healing the sick, became separated, or clas- 
sified into learned orders. 

In religious feeling, a deism, perhaps a form of Budhism, 
can be traced back to Central Asia as early as the reign of 
Sesostris. The Vedas, not much, if at all later, show the pos- 
session of a higher truth than the subsequent philosophizing 
social dogmas, depending upon dualisms and astronomical fan- 
cies, could teach ; and those in the east have a more reasoned 
cohesion than the Egyptian, and, still more, than the Greek 
and Roman poetical physicalities, drawn from eastern sources 
and misinterpreted. In high Asia we find the legends of Eu- 
rope extant in their sources. Many of the arts of social life 
are similarly derived from thence ; every wave of invasion 
westward bringing new ideas ; and, in later ages, the crusad- 
ers, coming from the east with loss and shame, still returned 
with the additional information they had acquired. From 
Madagascar, back to the Indus, we find a similar connection ; 
and, in the South Seas, there are everywhere evidences of an 
Asiatic priority. Finally, the western continent of America is 
redolent of Malay, Mongolic, Ouralian, and even purer Caucas- 
ian sources, in physical as well as traditional objects. 

In order to proceed to their various destinations, each typical 
stock naturally followed the great rivers in their course, for 



214 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

these are the natural directing lines of nations exploring the 
way to unknown regions ; and the necessity of facilitating 
progression is the cause why all tribes, however rude, are 
acquainted with some mode of conveyance by water. Other 
roads were early indicated, by local necessities, differing from 
the subsequent caravan routes, which took directions from and 
to points already known to be most favorable for trafficking 
with distant nations, who had objects of barter to exchange, 
and, therefore, on both sides, had an interest in the speediest 
and safest passage. From the well-known proceedings of sub- 
sequent ages, it is clear that outcasts and scouts, then hunter 
families, would naturally be the first adventurers, and tribes 
would follow onwards only as far as immediate necessity or 
convenience might dictate ; pushing further when more was 
known of the world before them, and pressure from new 
colonists urged them from behind. Starting through the 
gorges of the great river outlets to the plains, and following 
their course, or ranging along the flanks of mountain chains, 
to turn deserts, or escape the necessity of attempting elevated 
ridges, or interminable swamps, which were, or might be, im- 
passable ; while, at the same time, water, game, and wild fruits 
would be most abundant. 

Deserts and plains are never so absolutely impassable as to 
prevent ulterior progress Water is found in some localities, 
and occasionally verdure ; and these oases are soon marked 
by the wanderer, who then guides his family or moving tribe 
along them, till they reach a better region. Impediments of 
this kind are, therefore, incentives to progress, and generally 
much less obstacles than morasses and dense forests ; for it is 
by the river courses alone that these last are penetrated. 

In the progressive colonization some leading tribe would find 
a natural obstacle to retard or prevent its further migration ; 
halting on the spot, other clans would come up ; and where no 
forests near the sea, nor a great stream, would favor the struc- 
ture of rafts or canoes, intercourse occurring, more or less 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 215 

knowledge of the acquirements and experience each had gained 
would be the result, although it might be obtained after col- 
lision, by much slaughter and suffering, if not by the subjuga- 
tion of one of the parties. Yet, out of these disasters rose 
almost all the elements of civilization ; and it may be remarked, 
as a fact of constant occurrence, that human intelligence is per- 
haps never fully awakened to a progressive social system from 
suffering alone, but by intermixture, when races are packed 
together on the ultimate border of a sea, checked or forced to 
pass close upon or through each other, and to appeal to the 
sword. Thus, Palestine and Egypt, seated on the bridge that 
leads into Africa ; Ionia and Greece, on the ferry of the Helles- 
pont ; Tangier and Cadiz (the Bisepharat of antiquity) ; Bab- 
el-mandel, the gate of tears, or passage into Africa ; even the 
isthmus of Panama, all attest the fact, together with an addi- 
tional result, which shows not so much the stationary people, 
as that which has passed on, to be likewise foremost in civili- 
zation. Such was Egypt compared with Syria, Greece in re- 
spect to Asia Minor ; Spain with Africa ; such was Peru to 
Mexico ; and Western Europe is now, in comparison, to the 
east. 

Total civilization is not even produced by the mere compul- 
sory mixture of nations moving in the same direction ; it 
requires the additional influence of the modes of thinking and 
acting, from sources coming through other latitudes, to pull 
down and reconstruct a system that will accept of a progressive 
march of reasoning, independent of ancestral routine. Had 
the northern nations, by their own ambitious free will, not 
crossed upon the older migratory movement that came from 
east to west, such civilization as Egypt, Greece and Rome 
had conferred, notwithstanding that marine influences had 
greatly aided in the development, must have continued sta- 
tionary, then decayed, until they fell to ruin.=^ A want of 

* The power of habit, of educational prejudices, is forcibly seen, in 
Christian Rome continuing wild beast and gladiatorial exhibitions, though 



216 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

such concurrence, as already observed, may be the sole cause 
why China has remained stationary ; for even the slight shock 
lately given to that empire by Great Britain, has already had 
an effect, disproving the common opinion that the Mongolic 
mind cannot advance beyond a certain point. No people of 
the typical stocks could arrive at a progressive social existence, 
without intermixture of one or more branches of the homoge- 
neous nations of the bearded and beardless forms ; and through 
these, such rudiments of advancement as can be traced among 
the woolly-haired, were likewise engendered. 

While nations pushed each other forward, and contested the 
possession of desirable territories, sudden extermination of the 
vanquished people generally lent but trifling aid to intellectual 
advancement; there was scarcely a desire to make slaves, 
where food was often insufficiently abundant for the victors ; 
but when the great roads of colonization had been trodden by 
many nations to the verge of oceans, the result was different, 
because by that time Man had learned to subdue the Horse for 
his convenience, whereas, until that moment, the Ox alone 
appears to have been used for the saddle.^ This conquest over 
brute power again commenced in high Asia, perhaps about 
Samarkand, but more certainly on the great plains north and 
west of the central table land ; and with the aid of this valua- 
ble acquisition, began the era of invasion for dominion's sake; 
at first, in a more cumbrous manner, by charioteering; but, 
soon after, riders, on the backs of their horses, passing rapidly 
over immense distances, and almost entirely from east to west, 
carrying few or no wives or children, obtained both by the 
sword, and even spared the vanquished male sex, in order to 
enslave it.t 

both had been repeatedly scenes of martyrdom, until they were stopped by 
a Pagan, held to be a barbarian, because he was a Goth. 

* This was certainly a practice of Hindoo princes, before the Horse 
appears, and even long after. It is still in use among the Caffres, 
who ride their Bakeley Oxen in war ; and by mendicant fakeers in India. 

t Yet there are examples, down to the ninth century, when Christian 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 217 

From conquests by military invasion, there thus arose privi- 
leged families and tribes, a master class, in nearly every nation, 
marked, even at present, in many instances, by a distinct 
exterior, notwithstanding that, with scarcely an exception, it is 
issued from a cognate stem. Only time softened the bonds by 
gradual interunions, and by new conquerors again subduing both 
master and slave. In Europe, where the history of foreign 
subjugation is best preserved, there are instances of three or 
more having passed over the same people, each in turn crush- 
ing the former privileged orders. All were originally pastoral 
tribes, and they continued to conquer so long as agriculture 
had not yet fostered the other sciences of civilization; and 
defensive war was unavailing to scattered husbandmen, whose 
masters' subdivided power thwarted each other, and left the 
masses little worth defending. The nations who seem to have 
escaped servitude, it may be remarked, retreated to mountain 
regions, where cavalry had no advantage. Such are the 
Nilgherries, the Vindayan system, the western or modern Cau- 
casus, the Alps, the Pyrenees, &c., all peopled by refugees, not 
by Autochtones. Mere insular situations did not afford equal 
security, because boats conferred the same invading facilities 
which the horse produced on land ; and hence even the more 
remote South Sea Islands are not without a master race, which, 
in whatever way attention is turned, will ever be found to be 
directly or indirectly of the Caucasian stock, excepting only in 
those centres of existence where the two other typical forms of 
Man reside ; for one of these, sensible of an inferior innervation, 
is possessed of a well-founded jealousy of the bearded race, and 
by political precaution endeavors to exclude it, while the other 
rests secure in the effects of climate ; and both abuse their good 
fortune by, at least, inflicting subjection each upon kindred 
tribes; but much more restricted in the extent by the increasing 
progress of the Caucasian. 

kings (Franks) could direct the slaughter of every male whose height sur- 
passed the length of the conqueror's sword 
19 



218 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

West of Central Asia, all records agree in pointing to the 
east for the direction whence nations migrated. Only three 
exceptions occur, where the course was a return homewards 
from anterior progression. Such was the Hebrew from Egypt 
to Palestine, the Ionian from Greece to Asia Minor, and the 
Nogay Tahtar from Russia to China. If the Egyptians, led 
by a Sesostris, penetrated to Bactria, a fabulous Bacchus to 
India, the Gauls to Greece and Galatia, and the Macedonians 
to the Punjab, beyond the Indus, they were mere conquering 
inroads, which lasted only for a few generations, sustained in 
some degree by the aboriginal homogeneousness of the invaders 
with the races in possession of the land. The pseudo-Greek 
kingdoms, notwithstanding the great national influx of that 
people in Western Asia, had no permanent tenure ; and the 
Romans, the Crusaders, and the modern French, have only 
produced military occupations, not national colonizations. 
None are historically known to have departed from the inter- 
Pontine Caucasus, though many came westward, by the route 
of Armenia, with more or less delay in that high region, because 
the avenues leading south and west, from both sides of the 
Caspian, to Asia Minor, Syria, and Africa, mainly pass through 
it.^ 

Had the first population of mankind radiated from the Ara- 
rat of Armenia (for the word is generical),t all the present 
nations of the west, whose great movements are historically 
traceable to the high Oxus and Jaxartes (such as the Gomerian 
Celtae, and the Indo-Germans, Yuchi and Sacse), would have 
travelled, without being pressed in the rear, across deserts, up 
great rivers and high mountain ranges, before they multiplied, 
for no other purpose than to return over the same ground, that 

* Of course, the dispersion of the Jews eastward, and some more recent 
forcible transpositions of western Caucasian tribes to high Asia, are not 
here regarded. 

t In the Circassian tongue, Ararat, Arak, or Areck, simply denote a 
peak. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 219 

they might thence continue still further west than they had 
been east, and delay peopling only that portion of the globe 
which is unquestionably the most important of the whole ; or 
for the sole purpose of fetching the physical elements of social 
life already mentioned, which western Caucasus never spon- 
taneously produced, and to learn, at a distance, forms of 
speech, fundamentally belonging to the oldest Scythic, or a 
parent Sanscrit — a language found to influence, with very 
few exceptions, every known grammatical tongue in the world, 
though, in its present shape, it may be a mixture of various 
dialects. Asiatic early lore proves this primssval tongue to 
have originated in the southern and western Highlands already 
noticed, and to exist still in many idioms, spreading from their 
border through India, Indo-China, and, with less evidence, to 
Australasia, far more than to the west, in Europe, Persia, and 
Syria ; and none of its dialects positively belonging to western 
Caucasus. The present Imeritians, Circassians, &c., though 
they may have a just claim to be of the purest bearded typical 
stock, like the Coords, or Gaurs, were originally riding con- 
querors, and were driven into their present fastnesses at a com- 
paratively recent period. 

If we turn to India, although the woolly-haired stock may 
have retained, from priority of diffusion, a typical nucleus with- 
in the tropics, expanding even westward, there is a master race, 
of a distinct origin, domineering over the oldest discoverable 
tribes, gradually more and more intermixed, till, from pure 
white, it becomes positively black, without, therefore, being 
deprived of a superior aspect, which the Caucasian blood alone 
confers. It extends, with few exceptions, down to very near 
the equatorial line, where, indeed, contamination is still observ- 
able ; but the mastery of a foreign race evidently disappears. 
These conditions recur, in a south-western direction, along the 
Persian and Arabian maritime provinces, and eastern Africa; 
the Caucasian, whether brownish or black, preponderating 
numerically towards the shores of the Mediterranean, exactly 



220 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

in the ratio structural conformation would prefer, if left at 
liberty. This intermediate sub-typical race, in all its shades 
of color, is the Ethiopian of antiquity, and seems to have 
included those tribes which were held accursed by several of 
the most ancient white immigrators in Western Asia. 

The Mongolic nations record, in the same manner, their 
descent from high mountain ranges, and the early struggles of 
their heroes in draining marshes, teaching cultivation, letters, 
and metallurgy ; in time, making even regular observations on 
comets, when the wisdom of Europe was hidden in a howling 
wilderness, and long before science amongst us assumed a 
rational shape.=^ In America, all the tribes that retain tradi- 
tions of their origin, point to the north-west, with the exception 
of the extinct Flatheads, whose history is wholly unknown. 
They have propelled each other east and south, although cer- 
tain tribes of the most ancient residents in the south-east and 
Patagonian regions, may form exceptions ; and there are tradi- 
tions, even in Mexico, of marine strangers from the east; for 
man soon passed from fishing on the lake, or paddling in a 
stream, to adventure his person beyond the surf of seas ; and, 
when it served his purpose for coasting, trusted to the simplest 
materials to support his weight. Catamarans of three dry 
pieces of wood, and a staif, with flattened ends, for oars, have 
been in use, for uncounted ages, on the rolling seas of Madras, 
and models like them are often dug out with the bones of 
ancient Peruvians, where the inhabitants have similar breaking 
rollers to encounter. Coracles, made upon a frame of twigs, 
with the skins of seals, oxen, and horses, belonged to most 
nations of the Old Continent; birch kaicks to the Arctic people 
of both ; and canoes of solid wood, hollowed out, to every por- 
tion of the globe. When these had attained a certain bulk and 
adequacy of structure, a family might transport itself from one 
end of the world to the other, in a few seasons, merely by 
coasting. Thus did the messenger of Vasco de Gama pass, in 

* See Biot on Comets. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 221 

an open boat,=^ from Diu, in the East Indies, round the Cape, 
to Lisbon, in safety. In this manner, opinions, languages, and 
records, were transmitted, unadulterated, from the Euxine and 
Asia Minor, as far as Britain, in a single generation ; while the 
tribes whose fate it was to travel by land, were compelled to 
fight their way onwards for ages, gradually losing all memory 
of the pristine fatherland, and unable to recognize their ancient 
kindred, when they met again in the west, but by broken 
accents of a once common language, as is sufficiently evident 
in the meeting of the devious tribes of Gomerian Celtas. 

In the view here taken, mankind might be primitively 
arranged somewhat in the form of the diagram on page 222, sup- 
posing the apex of an equilateral triangle to point to the north. 



Thus, we have the southern line representing the Himalaya 
chain, with its great streams ending at the Indian Ocean, the 
eastern similarly leading to the Pacific, and the western to a 
sea gradually contracted into the Caspian ; and the intermedi- 
ate, conducted by geographical necessities, reaching the South 
Seas, the Northern Pacific, and from thence to America, the 
Polar and Western Regions, and the Erythrean Seas to North- 
ern Africa. Of these, however, the Caucasian alone bears 
evidence of commencing development upon the table land, and 
under the shadows of the western chains ; the Mongolic being 
at first no nearer than the eastern extremity of the Gobi, and 
the woolly-haired type coming up to, and along the skirts of 
the southern chain, rather than commencing primaeval diffusion 
so far to the north of its general centre of existence. 

The review of typical and sub-typical forms of Man, intended 
to be submitted here, appears to be best arranged by taking in 
succession the woolly-haired ; the Malay and mixed races of 

* It is supposed that lago Botello used a pattemar, or Cutch native 
boat, in this daring voyage. The vessel was half-decked, but only 16J 
feet long, 9 broad, and 4i in depth. 

19# 



222 



NATURAL HISTORY OF 



< 



SOUTH SEA CAUCASIAKS 



W 
H 
PJ 
O 




3331100 X 






THE HUMAN SPECIES. 223 

the South Seas ; the American abnormal nations ; the Mon- 
golic, or beardless; and the Ouralian and Toorkee. From 
these we arrh-e at the true Caucasian, whose early history, 
being best known from the south-east side of the central region, 
will require that first the mixed semi-woolly-haired tribes of 
South and Western Asia be examined, in order that the great 
influence and expansion of the bearded stock maybe established; 
and the records of its principal races will form the remaining 
subject of consideration. 

Beginning, therefore, with that form which may likewise, on 
that account, be considered as the most ancient, we find, — 



THE WOOLLY-HAIEED TROPICAL TYPE.* 

The woolly-haired, tropical, dark-colored stock, improperly 
called Atlantic and Ethiopic, is considered to be most distinctly 
typical, where the maximum of development is found, in the 
peculiarities of structure and faculties that distinguish it from 
the other normal forms. It is that which predominates in 
Central and Western tropical Africa, — a form of Man of good 
stature, though seldom attaining six feet in height, and falling 

* Bj"" this denomination is understood, not wool, strictly speaking, but 
hair so highly frizzled as to appear like the wool of Iceland sheep, and in 
coarseness so rude, that the wool of a" Negro head, struck with the 
knuckles, frequently cuts the skin to the bone. The pile of the beard, 
&c., is equally file-like or lacerating. These effects we have repeatedly 
witnessed. Though within the tropics no microscopes of sufficient power 
were at hand to test the fact, the general impression was, that this kind 
of hair is angular, and we doubt that Dr. Prichard's observations on the 
subject are wholly satisfactory, — the less so since the hair of the head 
seems to have been exclusively examined, in all the researches we have 
been able to consult. 



224 NATURAL HISTORY OE 

as rarely beneath five feet six ; the facial angle varying from 
65 to 70 degrees ; the head being small, laterally compressed ; 
the dome of the skull arched and dense ; the forehead narrow, 
depressed, and the posterior part more developed; the nose 
broad and crushed, with the nostrils round ; the lower jaw pro- 
truding, angular, but more vertical in nonage; the mouth wide, 
with very thick lips, black to the commissure, which is red ; the 
teeth large, solid, and the incisors placed rather obliquely for- 
ward. The ears, which are roundish, rather small, standing 
somewhat high and detached, are said, like the scalp, to be 
occasionally movable ; the eyes always suffused with a bilious 
tint, and the irides very dark. The hair, in infants, rises from 
the skin in small mammillary tufts, disposed in irregular quin- 
cunx, and is, in all parts, of a crisp woolly texture, except- 
ing the eyebrows and eyelashes. In men it is scanty on 
the upper lip, generally confined to the point of the chin, with- 
out any at the sides of the face, excepting in late manhood. 
On the head it forms a close, hard frizzle of wool ; in the pure 
races oever hanging loose, nor rising into a kind of mop ; and 
the breast sometimes has a few tufts, but the arms and legs are 
without any. The throat and neck are muscular, and, with 
the chest, shoulders, abdomen, hips, back, upper arms, and 
thighs, very symmetrically moulded ;^ but, compared with the 
Caucasian, the humerus is a trifle shorter, and the forearm 
longer, thereby approximating the form of Simiadae. The 
wrists and ankles are robust ; the hands coarse, with phalanges 
rather short, particularly the thumb; and the palms are yellow- 
ish. The legs have the shin-bones slightly bent forwards, and 



* The late Sir Francis Chantrey's magnificent cast of a Torso, taken 
from a Negro in London, bore ample testimony to this fact. Our own 
sketches of the naked figure, drawn during a residence of twelve years 
within the tropics, gave so much additional proof, that the great sculptor 
was tempted to copy several for his own use. With regard to the other 
sex, the tropics alone produce the combination of infantine natural grace 
with the full dQi^elopmient of female maturity. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 225 

the calves placed high up; the feet broad, heavy, squarish, 
with the soles flat ; the os calcis less prominent ; the toes short, 
more equal in length; and all the nails strong, short, and 
broad. The skin is soft, silky to the touch ; in the new-born 
infant, dull cherry-red, gradually darkening to the permanent 
depth of shade ; beneath the epidermis the mucous membrane, 
loaded with a coloring matter in the bile, causes the melanic 
appearance of the skin, which varies, however, from deep sal- 
low to intense sepia black ; darkest in health ; and that color 
always distinctly affects the external glands. It is likewise 
the source of an overpowering offensive odor, spreading 
through the atmosphere, when many are congregated in the 
hot sun. The silky texture of the epidermis is more liable to 
erosion from pressure than that of white men. It is a charac- 
ter as organic, or more so, than the arched dome of the skull, 
and the perpendicularity of the vertebral column, which are 
quoted as the sole cause, why burthens are best borne by 
Negroes on the head instead of the back ; for their general 
structure is athletic, the gait erect, free, and in young persons 
not ungraceful. 

It appears that some tribes in Dongola and Sennaar have 
one lumbar vertebra more than the Caucasian, and the stomach 
corrugated.^ In general, the female pelvis is wider, the aper- 
ture round, and both sexes have the hips remarkably well pro- 
portioned. The bones of the typical nations are heavy, well 
knit, or with the apophyses fitted to receive broad insertions 
of the muscles ; and the dome of the skull is particularly solid, 
but the ribs slender and flexible. Hence, Negroes, of all 
human beings, are distinguished for fighting, by occasionally 
butting with their heads foremost, like rams, at each other, the 
collision of their skulls giving a report that may be heard to 

* "Observations sur les battaillons Negres du Cordofan au service de 
Mehemet Ali en Egypte et qui servirent en Candie." By a German sur- 
geon. The same remarks are likewise offered, we believe, by Dr. Mad- 
den, Travels, &c. 



226 NATUEAL HISTORY OF 

some distance. Even women, in their brawls, have the same 
habit. The dense spherical structure of the head, likewise, 
enables several tribes to shave their crowns, and in this 
exposed state to remain, with the lower half of the body 
immersed in water, under a vertical sun. This very structure 
may influence the erect gait, which occasions the practice, 
common also to the Ethiopian or mixed nations, of carrying 
burthens and light weights, even to a tumbler full of water, 
upon the head ; a feat which they effect with perfect safety 
and grace fulness."^ 

Most of the black nations are capable of protracted toil, 
without much injury to their frames; they willingly share 
labor with the female sex in a state of independence as well as 
in captivity; they dig, hew wood, carry, walk, or row, for 
many hours, in a tropical sun, without repining. They mul- 
tiply on mountain and in morass, in sterile and in rich soil, 
throughout the tropical region. Though a new locality like 
South America be not their original centre of existence, they 
spread, on both sides, beyond the equatorial belt, over the 
lower degrees of the temperate latitudes ; do not decrease in 
the presence of Caucasians when not overworked by their task- 
masters ; and flourish under the fiercest solar heat, when other 
types of man decay or perish. In constitution, they escape or 
withstand many of the most virulent epidemics, among the 
rest, small-pox, so fatal to all the American races ; and others, 
incidental to the tropics, or introduced by Europeans, visit 
them with less violence. 

In South America, where the indigenous tribes diminish, in 
regions where white men are but little known, the Maroons 

* Though the practice is general, pride nevertheless can counteract it ; 
for we have invariably seen the Jamaica Maroons carry their produce to 
market on the back, and take their rest under distinct trees, apart from 
slave Negroes, because, as they told us, they, would show themselves 
" free like Buckra man ! " A second jar of water, Negroes always carry 
upon the palm of the hand inverted. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 227 

or Negroes, escaped from Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch 
slavery, increase ; they have established independent commu- 
nities in the swampy regions of Guiana, and, still more, 
between the rivers Amazon, Iza, and Japura, where, under the 
name of Jurie Negroes, they occupy an extensive territory, 
since they expelled the Moruas and Maruquevare Indians. 
These, however, together with the Haytian, the Jamaica 
Maroons, and Guadaloupe Quelehs, as well as all the West 
Indian and North American woolly-haired populations, being 
the offspring of the greatest intermixture of different African 
tribes, and not entirely free of European and American Indian 
admixture, are excited by acquired knowledge, under new cir- 
cumstances, and therefore capable of a united and reasoned 
energy. They have mostly lost the peculiar features belong- 
ing to the different African parent tribes. Their heads are 
larger, as is seen also in Dr. Morton's measurements, who, we 
are inclined to believe, was not aware of the rapid change that 
takes place in the development of the skull ; though, even in 
Europe, the difference of size in heads of the educated and 
uneducated classes, among civilized nations, is no secret to 
hatters. In this condition, colonial born Negroes are often 
ingenious handicrafts. We have known a slave cooper, whose 
owner refused to grant his emancipation for less than £600. 
They make good masons and joiners, and excellent steersmen 
at the wheel and tiller are not uncommon. 

The voice of Negroes is feeble and hoarse in the male sex ; 
exceedingly high and shrill in females -; the sense of sight is 
acute ; that of taste sufficiently delicate ; hearing sharp ; with 
notions of time, but very little of melody ; yet- fond of music, 
and constantly handling instruments of the most imperfect 
kind, excepting a species of harmonicon, made of slips of 
bamboo, or of a set of sounding stones, — if it be that these are 
of their own invention. They have drums and a kind of Cas- 
tanet; but stringed instruments are derived from a Moorish 
source. Though the physical qualities are well developed, the 



228 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

intellectual are low, in some tribes quite puerile; yet the 
moral impulses are not unfrequently of a most noble nature. 
They offer, therefore, a discordant mixture of qualities, 
wherein the good predominates, till the European, not mis- 
guided by personal interests or prejudices, cannot refrain from 
feelings of affection for them. They all believe in some kind 
of future state, though religious sensations are with them 
superstitious and childish mummeries, too often connected 
with fetiche necromancy, which deals in the crimes of poison- 
ing and murder. Thought is habitually dormant, and, when 
roused, it is manifested by loud soliloquy and gesticulations, 
regardless of circumstances. War is a passion that excites in 
them a brutal disregard of human feelings ; it entails the 
deliberate murder of prisoners ; and victims are slain to serve 
the manes of departed chiefs. Even cannibalism is frequent 
among the tribes of the interior. But these habits were once 
not unknown to the highest endowed Caucasians ; human 
sacrifices belonged to the heroic age of Greece ; to the historical 
of India, Phoenicia, Carthage, Egypt, and Celtica ; to nations 
who must have known better, and were not, like the African 
savage, in mental nonage, without neighbors to teach a better 
doctrine or more humane example ; for wherever higher moral 
duties have been promulgated to Negroes, they have been 
quickly accepted. Notwithstanding the listless torpidity 
caused by excessive heat, the perceptive faculties of the chil- 
dren are far from contemptible. They have a quick apprehen- 
sion of the ridiculous ; often surpassing the intelligence of the 
white, and only drop behind them about the twelfth year, 
when the reflective powers begin to have the ascendency. 

Collectively, the untutored Negro mind is confiding, single- 
hearted, naturally kind and hospitable. We speak not without 
personal experience. The female sex is affectionate, to abso- 
lute devotedness, in the character of mother, child, nurse, and 
attendant upon the sick, though these be strangers, and the 
often experienced reward scarcely amounting to thanks. As 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 229 

housewives, they are charitable to the wants of the wayfaring 
visitants; within doors orderly; and, personally, very clean; 
they are joyous ; noisy ; in the night-time indefatigable danc- 
ers equally with the men, who are in general orderly, trust- 
worthy, brave and unrepining. Both sexes are easily ruled, 
and appreciate what is good, under the guidance of common 
justice and prudence. 

Yet, where so much that honors human nature remains — in 
apathy, the typical woolly-haired races have never invented a 
reasoned theological system, discovered an alphabet, framed a 
grammatical language, nor made the least step in science or 
art.^ They have scarcely comprehended what they have 
learned, or retained a civilization taught them by contact with 
more refined nations, so soon as that contact has ceased. 
They have at no time formed great political states, nor com- 
menced a self-evolving civilization. Conquest with them has 
been confined to kindred tribes, and produced only slaughter. 
Even Christianity, of more than three centuries' duration, in 
Congo, has scarcely excited a progressive civilization, because 
it is unattended by the stimulus of a stranger race (for the 
srnall number of Portuguese officials, priests, exiles, criminals, 
and slave merchants, are inadequate, and of all European 
nations least capable of stirring the mind to activity, by educa- 
tion, and the example of exertion) ; notwithstanding that the 
nations south of the Zezere have a more intellectual aspect, 
and have a barter trade across the continent to Mozambique. 

Thus, the good qualities given to the Negro by the bounty 
of Nature, have served only to make him a slave, trodden down 
by every remorseless foot, and to brand him for ages with the 

* The simple formulse of Negro languages remain, when they are 
obliged to learn European ; thus, all the Negro slaves of tropical America 
speak a dialect in form the same as the general African tongue, though 
the words are Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Dutch, or Danish. 
Education and time have no doubt made the present generation more gram- 
matically correct. 

20 



230 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

epithet of outcast ; the marked unceasing proof of a curse, as 
old as the origin of society, not even deserving human forbear- 
ance ! and true it is, that the worst slavery is his lot, even at 
home, for he is there exposed to the constant peril of becoming 
also a victim, slaughtered with the most revolting torments.=^ 
Tyrant of his blood, he traffics in slavery as it were mer- 
chandise ; makes wai purposely to capture neighbors, and sells 
even his own wives and children. 

A second stem of the typical group is the eastern tropical 
or Samang, which we shall continue to denominate Papua, 
notwithstanding recent investigations have endeavored to con- 
fine this name to a more hybrid population of the Australian 
islands. It is in general greatly intermixed with Hindoo, 
Mongolic, and Malay blood ; and in comparatively few locali- 
ties sufficiently pure to retain the close crisp woolly scalp 
which is the most decisive criterion of the fact ; for, so soon 
as, in any warm climate, there is foreign alliance, the wool 
becomes bushy, and rises into a huge round mop ; and, if there 
be still greater connection, it droops, and gradually turns into 
incipient curls. By this token the amount of adulteration 
may be traced, independent of the color of the skin, with per- 
haps no exceptions, although it is true that there is in some 
cases a tendency to variation, in the offspring taking, in one 
birth, a more decisive maternal character, and perhaps in the 
next a paternal, even to the extent of modifying the hair, par- 
ticularly between true Negroes and hard lank-haired South 
Americans of the Austral-Malay cast of structure. These 
remarks show that the earlier Egyptians had only a casual 
knowledge of the true Negro populations ; for, when these 
were first noticed, they occupied, it seems, the high lands 
behind the east coast of Africa ; and the ages they may have 
nestled in the central regions, without further progress west- 

* See Bowdich's Mission to Ashantce. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 231 

ward, may be surmised, from the Phoenician navigators, who 
reached that coast by the Atlantic, not mentioning the presence 
of real human beings to the south of Cape Blanco, since they 
brought back to Carthage specimens or skins of the Chim- 
panzee, which at no time could exist to the north of the great 
rivers, where alone there are trees and food. The abnormal are 
portrayed on Egyptian temples, often repeated, with great bushy 
heads ; but real Negroes may be alone intended in the figures 
of black human victims, significantly ofiered to a Python god. 
In Asia the circumstances were different; to this time the 
Hubbashee clans of real Negroes exist in Laristan and 
Mekran, in Persia, and even on the Helmund ; and are evi- 
dently of the primitive race, to the south of the Himalaya 
chain as well as Southern Persia."^ This type forms the 
primaeval inhabitants of the Australasian and many tropical 
islands, although they have been rooted out or subdued to form 
a low cast of slaves in most of them; and notwithstanding that a 
remote idolatry, of Papuan origin, can still be traced out in parts 
of India, and sovereign families even claim descent from monkey 
gods, that is, from primasval Bheels, the worship has changed 
to Brahmanism, and the ruling dynasties are now of high caste 
Caucasians, as will be shown in the sequel. Only, in the larger 
islands, the Papua tribes are in general still found masters of 
the central mountain forests. Rarely, however, is this branch 
of the Negro stock equal in stature and vigor to the African. 

* Professor Wilson, in his notice of the animals, &c., mentioned by 
Ctesias, gives some account of the Kalestrii ; and in my manuscript note 
upon it, I find, that "there were other tribes, higher up the country, and 
nearer the sources of the Indus, who were very black, drank no water nor 
ate corn, but lived on the milk of their flocks." These were, perhaps, 
the typical Asoors or Azuras of Hindoo mythology. Abulghazi speaks 
of black people residing between the Hylas (Cabul ?) and the Indus, 
(vol. i., p. 15.) The present Aghori, by Ctesias named Andropophogoi, 
and by the Persians Mardikohr, still occasionally feed on putrid human 
flesh, and reside in caverns about Aboo, among the Jains. They cannot 
well be Caucasians, nor are they Mongoles. 



232 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Sometimes varying to yellowish-brown, it is in color sooty- 
black; in stature often so diminutive, that the small heads they 
have appear large, the more in disproportion, because the 
extremities are feeble and slender. Such at least is the case 
with many of the tribes still possessed of retreats in the Malay 
Archipelago and Peninsula ; but this form of the woolly-haired 
stock, unlike the African, diminishes rapidly before the en- 
croachments of Malays, Arabs, and Europeans. Many of them 
prefer death to slavery; others vegetate in that condition, their 
marriages not producing more than one or two children; and 
some, becoming Mahometans, form mixed populations, where 
Horafoura and Malay, Hindoo and Arab, Chinese and Euro- 
pean, have been promiscuously mixed, and their characteristics 
obliterated. In this way Western Asiatic nations, with more 
undulating or lank hair, were likewise formed, by intermixture 
with the low-fronted Dombuks, Nimreks, and Kakasiah, or 
black brothers. They may have influenced even the black 
Kalmuks, the Colchians of Herodotus, and the black Bedou- 
eens. 

From the geographical position of the purest Papua Negroes, 
it is evident that they have been the first race expelled the 
coasts and plains, since they are insulated in the mountains, or 
driven to the unhealthy equatorial points, where other tribes 
cannot multiply. Hence, they are the oldest primaeval race, 
even if it should be denied that they are a population of ante- 
rior date to a great territorial cataclysis, which submerged a 
continent beneath or on the south of the line. It is also 
evident, that around them, and northward, up the Indus, to the 
southern foot of the Himalayas, the (Nishada) most ancient 
nations, with some relation to the distance from their equatorial 
centre, bear strong marks, in structure, intellectual capacity, 
habits, color, and hair, of a succession of intermixtures with 
races coming down by the gorge of the Brahmaputra, and along 
the eastern secondaries of the great mountain range, causing a 
Mongolic adulteration ; and, on the north-west, by the Cabul 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 233 

and Indus, another of Caucasian blood, passing to the plains 
of India in overpowering numbers ; and by the Ganges and 
Jumna ; likewise along the western flanks of the range from. 
Cashmere, and indeed from China itself, where, in the earliest 
aofes, the bearded race had numerous colonies. But there is 
no evidence of the woolly-haired stock possessing, at any time, 
the valleys above the secondary ranges, since none are now 
found shut up in the colder mountains ; and the bearded races, 
tenants of the region, are fair, and not unfrequently marked by 
gray eyes, and light or red curled hair, showing how remote 
was the starting-point from whence they first proceeded. 
Both the earliest known invasions of the Indian peninsula, 
coming in successive waves, demonstrate how variously crossed 
and intermixed have been the populations already, before the 
recorded historical repetitions of the same movement took 
place. Similar events were equally in active operation to the 
south-west, through Persia and Syria. While a proportion of 
the black races may have coasted towards Africa, others no 
doubt passed through the isthmus of Suez, and by the Arabian 
shore into their present central region, leaving marks of their 
progress in the Mekran, and other fish-eating Suakim on the 
African shore. 

The Papuan stock, notwithstanding mental and physical 
deficiencies, has advanced to the pastoral and even agricultural 
conditions, when not molested by invaders, and favored proba- 
bly by some foreign innervation ; for, in a pure, unmixed state, 
no eastern Negro tribe has passed beyond the profession of 
hunter, or is observable on islands at more than a moderate 
distance from its Australasian centre. The inapprehensive 
character of their constitutions, or an impulse which leads 
them to the sea, induces both African and Papua stems readily 
to accept a marine mode of life. They are generally excellent 
swimmers ; they dive fearlessly, and will fight the shark in his 
own element. Yet they have never invented the construction 
of large canoes, isuch as the Malay and American make with 
20* 



234 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

SO much skill. The marine enterprise, however it may have 
been occasioned, is manifest even among tribes residing far 
inland ;'^ such, for example, are the brave and honest Menas 
or Kroomen of Western Africa, who all become in some degree 
sailors ; and colonial Negroes, who are often seamen in the 
merchant service. 

In what manner the black Caribs of St. Vincent first reached 
the Western Hemisphere, is narrated upon questionable evi- 
dence. Those said to be remains of this adventitious race, are 
still excellent boatmen ; and if Peter Martyr (Decads) may be 
credited, there was a Negro population already established on 
the coast of America t before the arrival of the Spaniards. 

On the west coast of Africa the most energetic tribes are 
Coromantees, very black, and marked on the cheeks with tri- 
bal scars. They are a daring and martial people ; when en- 
-slaved, often rebellious. The Eboes, on the contrary, are less 
vigorous, paler in color, with a more slender form and elon- 
gated features. They are a gentler race, yet more truly sav- 
ages ; and, though addicted to despondency and suicide, they 
were formerly sought for house servants. The Widahs, or 
Fidahs, are of the stem usually called Papaws and Nagas in 
Africa ; they resemble the Papuas of the Indian Ocean more 
than any other race ; and they assimilate likewise with the 
Eboes, but are still more submissive as slaves. They have 
a baboon-like expression, and the peculiarities of the Negro 

* The fearless propensity to venture on the sea was shown in Jamaica, 
during our residence on the island, by two very young Negro lads, both 
natives of the interior of Africa, who could know little more of a water 
life than perhaps fishing on the Niger ; yet they stole a canoe ; and, unpro- 
vided with food or water, went to sea from Port Royal harbor, with the 
resolution of returning to their own country ! The poor lads were fortu- 
nately picked up by a merchant ship, when they had already drifted far out 
to the south-west, and were nearlv dead from exhaustion. 

t Peter Martyr, who wrote from the manuscript documents of the first 
discoverers then living, cites Vasco Nunez meeting with a colony of 
Negroes at Quariqua, in the Gulf of Darien. This, it should be 
remarked, is anterior to the introduction of black slaves. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 235 

type strongly marked. Among them, in particular, the Naga 
tribes practise circumcision, and have other eastern indications 
about them ; the Cumbric Negroes may belong to this branch ; 
and the Mocos, who file the teeth in order to resemble the 
Lion, are still cannibals, and the most savage of the Papaw 
nations. Like the eastern Papuas, they are of a dirty black 
color, and have the same Jewish rites as the rest. Hebrew 
or Semitic words occur in their dialects, as in the Hous- 
wana tongues. Ideas, and perhaps affinity with the An- 
gola and Benin tribes, recall to mind the still existing barter 
trade across the continent to Mozambique, and this may point 
out the route from the east by which they may have come to 
their present location ; for, had they spread from west to east, 
no oriental words or institutions would be found in their ancient 
national dialects or habits. 

In Eastern Africa, the woolly-haired races, though occupy- 
ing a vast extent, are likewise of intermixed origin. The 
whole east coast is possessed by nations tinged with Arabic 
blood ; the extreme south by apparently an outcast Mongolic 
population ; and, from the north, Gomerian tribes have likewise 
produced commixtures to beyond the Senegal. Among these, 
ancient Numidians appear to have been propelled by Arabian 
conquerors, and to have originated the red and black Poulas, 
so called in proportion as the brown or black color of their skins 
predominates. These have horses and camels, unknown to all 
other Negroes, and are now Moslem. The Jaloffs are a branch 
of this stem ; and the Mandingoes, once a nomad people, bear 
evident tokens of a more northern origin, only in part effaced 
by intermixture with true Negroes. Beyond the Menas or 
Kroomen, on the Gambia, there are, however, important nations 
of true Negroes, such as the Basus and Buyere on each side 
of them ; and in the interior of Africa the mysterious Ba-u-ri. 

Of the African stock the most conspicuous abnormal stem is 
the Kafir or Caffre, a race which, having a Semitic innervation, 
has risen in stature, intelligence and beauty, above all the 



236 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

tribes of nearly pure Negro blood. They have formed states 
of some extent ; they build large towns ; possess the art of 
smelting and working metals ; are very considerable graziers ; 
and have some agriculture. The Caffres have trained their 
war or Bakeley Oxen to be ridden in battle ; ^ have large, and, 
in some measure, organized armies, distinguished by decorated 
spears for ensigns, and shields painted with different cogni- 
zances for each corps. Among the men there are individuals 
nearly seven feet in height; and the women frequently possess 
considerable beauty. Extending on the south-east coast to 
Port Natal, they have all, it is asserted, formerly migrated 
from the north-west, or Central Africa ; but this is evidently 
only the expansion of increased population, which, in earlier 
ages, shrunk from the barren coasts, and, since returning, have 
directed their march to the south-east. 

Next, or perhaps superior to them in energy, are the Galla 
or Sidana nation, constantly encroaching on the Abyssinian 
states, and containing several mighty tribes ; such as the 
Sooalla, seated from the equator to Mozambique ; the Soomal- 
lees on the north of them, and the pure Gallas in the interior, 
who are chiefly composed of Carrachi and Boiran tribes — all 
speaking dialects of one great language. 

In the east, the propensity to an aquatic life is likewise man- 
ifest, for true oriental Negroes inhabit the Nicobar islands, and 
spread through many Australasian, Philippine, and more east- 
ern groups, though they are often intermixed with Malay, or 
with Hindoo races, who have modified their characteristic dis- 



* No doubt, oxen were ridden in India before war-horses were intro- 
duced by the north-western conquerors. There exist allusions to the prac- 
tice ; and I have copied an Indian Rajah, seated on his war-ox, from a 
painting on ivory. Siva on the bull Nundi represents the same fact ; and 
the African Caffres, having the like custom, may indicate the region 
whence they emigrated, and the date as anterior to the arrival of domes- 
ticated horses in southern Asia. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 237 

tinctions, and there also, in general, constituted a privileged 
order among them. This occurs even among the Tasmanians, 
the lowest race of oriental Negroes, and now nearly extinct, 
yet still familiar with water. The New Holland Papuas, who, 
for want of trees serviceable for excavation, venture out upon 
slips of bark but slightly bound together at the extremities, or 
on pieces of drift-wood, not capable to support them until their 
bodies are partially immersed ; nay, on the central lakes of 
Africa, Negroes venture out, riding a stick, having two open 
calabashes, one before, the other behind, which buoy them up 
sufficiently, to admit in them the fish they catch, and stun or 
kill with a billet. 

The Papuan of Australia is, in many respects, the most 
sunken of human beings, and is partly mixed with Horafoura; 
tribes, whose presence is indicated by the hair being more 
drooping and matted, the features less debased, and the limbs 
more masculine. Some tribes towards the north are even fair, 
and appear to have a tinge of Malay blood, perhaps imported 
by the Trepang fishers on the coast. 

If the woolly-haired type, in the oriental portion of its dis- 
tribution, is often of the smallest and ill-made proportions, 
there are instances (perhaps, indeed, of races already somewhat 
mixed) where they rise to six feet high, and possess powerful 
frames, as was lately discovered in the interior of Australia. 
But, in all, where any religious sentiments have been observed, 
they seem to be imported, or sink into the lowest puerilities. 
This is also the case in Africa, where the divinities are spec- 
tres ; or are reptiles, lizards, insects, birds, or beasts ; gods in 
one season and game in another ; or they are wretched little 
idols they call Fetiche, a word derived from Pet, pataichos, of 
Phoenician or Egyptian origin; and, as it evidently means 
father, shows that, in the first acceptation, was implied venera- 
tion for departed tribal or family ancestors, but became de- 
graded to a kind of idolatrous worship, which, in the hands of 
Negroes, is bestowed upon monkey skulls, bits of bone and rag; 



238 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

or is a gross scarecrow, set up under a canopy of straw. The 
Negro has shown always a great propensity to incantation and 
sorcery ; has recourse to protective amulets, which he calls 
Grisgris ; and positive impostures are both believed in and 
practised by the male part, without an attempt at reflection; 
although, in other respects, he can be a mimic — and does not 
want craft in the mysteries of huckstering, or of small dealing, 
which all classes are inclined to. These propensities can be 
traced to the extent of a kind of caravan trade, and the fre- 
quentation of sacred, or, at least, neutral marts, scalas, or ven- 
tas, where dealers assemble at stated periods within the precincts 
of Nigritia, for elsewhere the lawless ferocity of slave-making 
Caucasians has rendered the practice impossible to the Negro 
race. All these opinions and customs are, however, perfectly 
in harmony with the oriental development of the woolly-haired 
tribes ; with their primaeval passage even through Egypt and 
the desert, which most recent discovery shows to be still, in 
parts, not entirely barren ; although, as Dr. Hoskins has proved, 
increasingly desolate. 

The Horafouras, or Alforees of the Australasian islands, 
are, we believe, the first and most ancient abnormal race of 
Papuan origin, tinged sufficiently with Malay blood to possess 
the energy and malignant ferocity of that people ; while they 
have the color and the great mop-formed hair, which result 
from an interunion thus formed, and, having greater mental 
development, their social progress is more advanced. They 
possessed already, in remote antiquity, the means of marine 
venture, which causes their descendants to be found singly, or 
partially mixed with Caucasian blood, on most of the South 
Sea islands. 

They appear to have been the leaders of that generally pre- 
vailing fashion among those tribes, of tattooing the skin not 
only of the face, but nearly of every part of the body; distinctly 
marking, by means of raised lines and figures, the family clan 
of every individual so adorned. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 239 

The Negro or woolly-haired type, independently of diluvian 
convulsions, appears, as before stated, originally to have 
extended northward to the lower ranges of the Himalaya 
chain, if indeed that region was not its original seat ; and that 
it did not extend, in a pure or perhaps somewhat mixed state, 
eastward to Japan, may be surmised by the present population 
of Formosa being apparently descended from an expelled people, 
once resident about the coasts of China. It is confirmed from 
the existence of a black stock, with Caucaso-Mongoles, and now 
termed Min-leu, black-haired people; a denomination which 
implies a distinct race, not genuine Chinese. The same infer- 
ence may be drawn from the black people mentioned by Abul- 
ghazi, and even from the melanic Californians on the west 
coast of America. 

In this view, the first migrations of the Negro stock, coast- 
ing westward by catamarans, or in wretched canoes, and 
skirting South -Western Asia, may synchronize with the 
earliest appearance of the Negro tribes in Eastern Africa, and 
just precede the more mixed races, which, like the Ethiopians 
of Asia, passed the Red Sea at the straits of Bab-el-mandel, 
ascended the Nile, or crossed that river to the west; for that 
movements of this kind were long continued, is apparent, from 
the Nagas or Norages, who visited Spain and the Mediter- 
ranean islands under Norax, so late as the dawn of authentic 
history. 

Taking the whole southern portion of Asia westward to 
Arabia, this conjecture, which likewise was a conclusion 
drawn, after patient research, by the late Sir T. Stamford 
Raffles, accounts, more satisfactorily than any other for the 
oriental habits, ideas, traditions, and words, which can be traced 
among several of the present African tribes and in the South 
Sea islands ; it points out the primaeval cities of the woolly- 
haired people in Nangasaki, or rather, in its ancient form, 
Nagaraki, according to Pfitzmayer ; Nagara, now Cashmere ; 



240 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Nagara, the known capital of a most ancient Naga people.^ 
Further, in the plains, are Nagpoor, and a ruined city without 
name, at the gates of Benares (perhaps the real Kasi of tradi- 
tion), once adorned with statues of a woolly-haired race ; and 
lower still, on the Indus, Pattala, the ancient empire of the 
Naga or serpent kings, before it became a mythological 
legend. These cities existed, and a given social state was 
advancing to civilization among the typical woolly-haired tribes 
of higher Asia, but declined and fell, from the moment the 
Hindoo races invaded Bharata or the peninsula of India. The 
people, nevertheless, which they subdued, expelled, and vainly 
endeavored to extirpate, survived, in scattered purer groups, in 
the more inaccessible parts of the continent, chiefly along the 
subordinate ramifications of the Himalaya range, from the Indus 
to Indo-China, and the Malay peninsula ; or in the form of 
hybrid tribes, even at present lurking in the Vindaya chain, 
and spread through the southern states to Ceylon. Taking 
the characteristics of some tribes still remaining for the general 
standard, they were a strong-built under-sized people, with a 
depressed forehead, frizzled hair, crushed nose, thick lips, and 
black skin, all to some extent cannibals, and incapable of 
rising, by their own intellectual powers, much beyond the 
degrees of social improvement they had attained ; yet not so 
low, but that some of the worst features of their religious and 
moral notions were adopted by their conquerors. The names 
of the nations varied of course. Among the most ancient and 
general, was that of Nats, Nagas, Nishadas, Kabendas, Bhils, 
and Puharees.t They are now found under similar denomi- 

* This Nagara stood on the Indus, between latitude 32 and 33°, and was 
a Dionysiopolis, according to Ptolemy ; but more probably the fanum of 
some Naag Sahib, a serpent god with human sacrifices, such as the Naag 
tribes had upon the upper Nile, and still retain in Cutch. Naag and 
Naga, if it be a Sanscrit word, is also well known in more than one Afri- 
can dialect. 

t Several of these names recur, most significantly, among the Negro 
tribes of Western and Southern Africa, particularly those of Nagas or 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. ^ 241 

nations, such as Cutchees, Bheels, Binderwars, Paharias of 
Bhangulpoor, and Mongheer, who are complete Papuas ; there 
are the Sedies of Canara, Dacoits of Bengal, Ghonds of Ghond- 
wana, Koolies or Kholes, Lurka Kholes, Cookies or Nagas of 
Indo-China; Bedas or Vedas of Ceylon, &c. In Persia are 
the Hubbashie and Mekran fish-eaters ; and the Jamaules, near 
Aden, and the Ovahs of Madagascar, are partially mixed races. 
The most aberrant of all are, however, the Houswana 
nations, the Hottentots, Bushmen, Coranas, &c., all of a lemon 
peel or dirty yellow color, and often with strange peculiarities 
of form ; speaking dialects inimitably articulated, and possibly 
forming a hybrid race of Mongolo-Papuan origin ; one flang 
abroad at so remote a period, as to have preceded both the 
true woolly-haired tribes, the Ethiopian, and the Caucasian 
nations, since they, together with the Ompizee of Madagascar, 
a portion of the inhabitants of Fernando Po, and the ancient 
Guanches of TenerifFe and the islands of the west coast, seem 
to have belonged to the same origin, and to have been driven 
oflf in all directions by the Negroes who succeeded them ; ^ 
until, at a later period, they effected interunions, which form, 
some of the modifications among the black tribes, and consti- 
tute the existing populations above named. That certain 
tribes, of a partially civilized race, preexisted in the present 
Caffraria, is even proved by the rectangular stone walls of old 
Leetakoo (Leetakoon, in the CafTre dialects, denoting the old 
stone buildings), the ruins of which still remain, in a country 

Nagoes, Puharees, Menas, and, perhaps, Galla ; for in India the Gwalla, 
or grazier profession, is the same as that of the African Gallas, who also 
bear another Asiatic and their true name of Sidana. Gal, Gail, in Cel- 
tic, moreover, denotes a stranger or wanderer, therefore radically also a 
nomad. 

* To this expelled sallow people may be ascribed also the ruins of 
houses, which are reported to have been still visible in the Canary Islands, 
at the commencement of the ninth century ; as related by the Irish Monk 
Dicuil, in his curious work, " De Mensura Orbis Terrae." He wrote ia 
the year 629, and is better known by the name of the "Anonymous of 
Ravenna." 

21 



242 NATURAL HISTORY OP 

where the Amazula, Bachapin, or Caffre population, never have 
built a house but of reeds and clay. 

In north-eastern Africa, an expansion similar to that in the 
south is taking place : the Cushi, Kopths, Mauritanians, Abys- 
sinians, and Arabs, gradually diminish or become absorbed; 
the Negro races press forward, by the Bahar-el-abiad, upon 
Egypt, and through the desert, upon Morocco, not so much by 
conquest as by the increase of their numbers ; a result which 
continued slavery only tends to hasten. Such also has been 
the consequence in Hayti and in Central America ; nor can 
the evil effects impending over Brazil, and even over our own 
colonies in the west, be avoided, but by timely liberal and 
humane laws, aiding a true, zealous, and applicable system of 
education. The really good qualities, and single-heartedness 
of the Negro, may then be safely expected to evolve that quiet 
cooperation and patriotic feeling which justice will teach him 
to appreciate ; but the prejudices of colonists have still much 
to retrace and to unlearn. Fear alone imparts moderation and 
reason upon masses, who believe they derive an advantage 
from injustice. 

Before concluding, we may mention here the gradations 
through which intermixtures of the typical stocks are distin- 
guished in the West India Islands. The offspring of a black and 
a white parent is denominated a Mulatto; a black and a mulatto 
produce a Samho ; a black and a sambo a Mungroo ; and a 
black and a mungroo is again completely black. But, in this 
case, the disturbance in the intellectual qualities is not again 
obliterated; it remains, to a considerable extent, of a more 
developed character than in a true Negro of unmixed origin. 
A mulatto, however, and a white generate a Quartroon ; 
a quartroon and a white a Mestie ; and a mestie and a white 
a complete white, having already, before the emancipation of 
the slaves in all our colonies, the legal rights of a white man 
of pure blood. Yet this class of persons still, in general, have 
black and curly hair ; the nails on the fingers remain darker 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 243 

and ill-shaped ; the feet are indifferently formed ; and in 
their propensities much of the Negro origin continues to be 
traced. The Spaniards carry their distinctions to a seventh 
generation. 

As the early history of the real Ethiopic nations is better 
known by means of the connection and hybridal descent they 
drew from the Caucasian races, we shall enter into more detail 
respecting their primasval filiations and migratory movements, 
when treating of the bearded tribes which first invaded India, 
and pursued, subdued, and absorbed the Negro population in 
south-eastern and south-western Asia, and northern Africa; 
an inquiry that can be followed out by certain geographical 
necessities, and by a right appreciation of many ancient mythic 
tales, notwithstanding that historical data were few and 
scanty.^ 

THE MALAY SUB-TYPICAL STEM. 

Pursuing our course of investigation onwards towards the 
east, we find from a commencement somewhere on the gorges 
of the Brahmaputra, where that mighty stream turns towards 
the Ganges, an intermediate form of Man ; one which, in a 
most remote period, was perhaps seated further to the north, 
about the sources of the great rivers which rise to the eastward 

* Our personal observations on the Negro races, it is proper to mention, 
commenced in 1797, on the coast of Africa. They were continued, on 
both portions of the American continent, and in the West Indies, to 
1807 ; during which period the slave trade remained inactivity, and new 
Negroes, as they were termed, coming from different nations, could be ex- 
amined, and their characteristics compared at most of the tropical seaports. 
The distinctive characters then possessed by them are now confused or 
obliterated by commixture of the different races, by education, and other 
changes of circumstances in the western hemisphere, and are no longer 
accessible on the coast of Africa. Hence, several remarks above made 
cannot now be entirely verified in any quarter. From what is here stated, 
it follows that the observations, more or less carefully made, extended 
over hundreds, belonging to very different tribes of western and central 
Africa, exclusive of North and South American, and West Indian colonial- 
born Negroes. 



244 NATURAL HISTORY OP 

of that stream. This stem now extends across the great pen- 
insula of Indo-China, or has been propelled, by the pressure of 
genuine Mongolic races and mixed Indo tribes, not only to the 
extreme south of the peninsula, but driven onwards, beyond 
sea, to the islands of Australasia, to Madagascar, the archipel- 
agos of the Pacific; and, it would seem, even to South Amer- 
ica, before that continent was visited by the great migrations 
which came down the coast by the west of the Cordilleras. 
Conquered on the mainland of Asia, tribes of Malays, no doubt, 
reached the peninsula of Malacca at a remote period, but not 
before Java and Sumatra, Borneo and Celebes were detached 
from it ; for notwithstanding that the deep channels, extant in 
their present waters, soundings and shoals, spreading even to 
the vicinity of Australia and New Guinea,"^ indicate the com- 
paratively recent period when a great disruption of the land 
occurred in those latitudes, or the present conditions of the 
coasts were completed, still the presence of a more ancient or 
a more purely typical race, on the centre and on the west coast 
of the two first-mentioned islands, seems to prove that these were 
anterior, and the Malays only the second, or more probably the 
third source of the present population. 

Preceding the arrival of the Malays, there was already 
extant, as the scattered fragments of the former population 
prove, the Oriental Negro stock ; both on the continent and in 
the islands ; and coeval with the first-mentioned tribes, the 
black Hindoo mixed Caucasian stem seems likewise to have 
been urwd to the same coasts. Thus, the adulteration of the 
woolly-haired stock was eflTected in two directions, and the Malay 
stem, apparently resulting from the union of Caucasian with 
Mongolic tribes, caused that great variety of feature, complexion, 
and form, which it is known to possess, without therefore oblit- 
erating the perceptible sub-typical general resemblance which 
constitutes the characteristic marks of the whole race. If the 
Malays were a real typical stock, they would likewise possess 

* Earl's Report in Journal of Geographical Sciences. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 245 

a nucleus, or centre of existence, exclusively adapted for their 
permanent abode, whereas the contrary is clearly shown, by the 
presence of unadulterated races, and mixed tribes of the other 
two stocks, in both conditions suited to the same geographical 
region. This circumstance likewise indicates the probability 
of a great atmospheric change in relation to man, after a dilu- 
vian cataclysis, if it be admitted that this equatorial vicinity 
was once the real Nigritia of the woolly-haired type. Now, 
as it is evident the centre of development belonging to this 
type is at present in the tropical regions of Africa, and, as was 
before shown, that there are indications of a third being in 
preparation, under the same latitudes in South America, while 
the Oriental is gradually disappearing, it might be asked, 
whether there is not here the indication of a submerged conti- 
nent, and another instance of that progressive migratory move- 
ment from the east to the west, or expansion and decay, 
ordained to be the fate of the great human typical stocks, and 
impelled by laws whose operation may be perceived without 
affording the means of tracing their causes beyond probable 
assumptions ? Yet this physical procession over the earth by 
longitudes may not be without ultimate connection with tha,t 
intellectual march of Man by latitudes, which, while departing 
from the temperate regions of our northern hemisphere, and 
arriving at the extremity of the habitable south, appears to 
repeat, on a greater, the workings of civilization which it com- 
menced on a less scale in Europe, and thus to be evolving the 
mysterious problem of human fusion into one great family, led 
by one religious system, and trained to the sciences and litera- 
ture of Europe. 

As the Malays are nowhere expansively homogeneous, and in 
most places only tenants of coasts or parts of islands, varied 
marks of national adulteration are constantly perceptible. In 
general, however, their distinctive characters are marked by a 
comparatively small head, measuring, in the capacity of the 
skull, according to Dr. Morton, from sixty-four to eighty-nine 
21* 



246 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

cubic inches ; a diversity in itself sufficient to demonstrate the 
mixed nature of their origin. The dome is high and rounded, 
with a low forehead; the face is fiat and broad; the nose 
short, expanded at the wings ; the mouth wide, with projecting 
upper jaws, and teeth resembling Negroes ; the skin varying 
in color from clear brown to dark clove ; the auditory aperture 
elevated, and consequently with a depressed forehead, — nearly 
as much so as in the woolly-haired type, but commonly distin- 
guished by prominent ridges of the orbits overhanging the eyes ; 
and we have seen a light brown, so-called, Papua girl, from one 
of the South Sea cannibal islands,"^ whose forehead had the 
lengthened form assumed to be peculiar to the American races. 
In the more typical tribes, the Malay's hair is coarse, lank and 
shining, like the Chinese ; more aberrant, it becomes undulat- 
ing and bushy, till, in still more adulterated races, it rises in the 
high curly mops which attest the intermixture of blood to be 
not less than half with woolly-haired families. This condition, 
however, most frequently advances the physical improvement 
of the possessors, and even the intellectual, when there is an 
additional innervation from a Caucasian source. The beard is 
often plucked out, generally scanty in the purer hybridism of 
the Malay composition, nor does it increase to the full honors 
of a well furnished fringe, up to the ears, unless there are again 
other indications of a Caucasian infusion. In that case, consid- 
erable stature is likewise not unfrequent; while, without the 
exciting cause just mentioned, a lank spare structure is the 
more usual, and the lower extremities are often somewhat defi- 
cient and short among the tribes addicted to marine lives. In 
moral capacity, the Malay races are inferior to the Mongolic, 
yet they exhibit, like them, intellectual vitality, great bodily 
activity, and considerable manual dexterity, as well as enterprise. 
The temperament of true Malays is treacherous, the disposi- 
tion ferocious, implacable, and the nervous system compatible 
with a kind of insensibility to bodily pain ; hence, fits of 

* From Tikienitri, a sandal wood island. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 247 

ungovernable passion are always breaking forth in acts of 
indiscriminate murder, brought on by an abuse of ardent spirits, 
opium, and bang (smoking hemp). These occur so frequently 
among them, that in most European settlements, where this 
race is apt to congregate, particular police regulations and pre- 
cautions are taken to obviate the greatest mischief; and it is 
not unusual to kill the maniac on the instant, as the only 
effectual preventive, since instances are recorded, where they 
have run up the spear that had transfixed them, and thus have 
sabred the spearman. This frenzy is commonly known by 
the name of Muck, Mook, Mengamok, in Sumatra, and Wude 
in India. To the same insensibility may be ascribed their 
ferocious, unyielding spirit in battle. They fight to the last 
gasp, never ask, and scarcely will accept quarter, nor profess 
thanks for mercy and the cure of their wounds. 

The great affluence of Arab merchants and fanatics has con- 
verted the more polished Australasian tribes of Malays to Islam ; 
the others are still Pagans of very different creeds, generally 
not resting upon any reasonable system ; but Christianity is 
now spreading rapidly, through the zeal of missionaries, in the 
Polynesian islands, where, however, the Caucasian stock is 
more deeply mixed up in the composition of the nations, than 
in the great islands nearer the Asiatic shore. 

All, however, record, in somewhat similar forms, a great 
diluvian catastrophe, have the same notions about the Makeri, 
or Dragon Serpent, a dragon-fish god assailing the moon, the 
crescent boat during eclipses ; notions alike remembered in 
Central Africa, Peru, China and Ceylon, as well as in Borneo 
and Sumatra, They are essentially the same as the Indian 
legends of Vishnou, the Tab tar Nataghi, can be traced in the 
Scandinavian and other heathen mythologies of Europe and 
North America, being all distorted versions of the scriptural 
record in Genesis. 

The languages of Malay nations, influenced by the various 
causes before noticed, and even by the contact of antique de- 



248 V NATURAL HISTORY OF 

tached tribes, whose original affinity cannot now be traced, 
have produced great differences of opinion among ethnologists, 
as regards their classification ; the learned William von Hum- 
boldt vainly claiming a unity of origin from the identity of the 
dialects spoken by a great proportion of the Polynesians, whom 
he and others regard as Malays. But, although we do not 
mean to deny a pervading intermixture of Malay blood in the 
composition of these tribes, still, as they vary, from absolutely 
Oriental Negroes, to nations having most striking characteris- 
tics of true Caucasians, the sole test of language, even if it were 
beyond dispute, is scarcely of sufficient weight to determine the 
whole question. It should be remembered that all the Malay 
dialects abound in Sanscrit words, which, be they borrowed 
from the tongues of the present Indo-China, or from the Te- 
linga of the peninsula, are still evidence of a prevailing Cauca- 
sian admixture. Indo-China, the primaeval abode of the Malays, 
bears Sanscrit names in every locality, whereas the Polyne- 
sian languages are without these characteristics in the words 
and grammatical structure. There are, moreover, monuments 
of Man's presence in many islands, from the Ladrones, in the 
Chinese seas, and Tinian, to Java, the Marquesas, Easter and 
Pitcairn Islands, monuments, not the work of the present exist- 
ing nations, but raised at so remote a period, that all memory 
of the facts connected with them is departed even from myth- 
ical tales ; yet they are constructed upon principles positively 
akin to Caucasian reasoning and Caucasian skill. Tribes of 
this type have left strong evidence of their ancient prevalence 
in the present mop-headed Figees, the brown curly-haired 
Marquesans, the dark-haired Hawaiians, and the variously 
featured New Zealanders, in all of which, though the masses 
of population indicate mixtures of lower origin, the chiefs point 
to the true Caucasian descent, in their whole external con- 
formation, and still more in the intellectual qualities they pos- 
sess. It is from this high order of ancestors, it appears most 
probable, that the pyramidal Morais, and other monuments. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 249 

have been derived ; for in the Malay peninsula, and where 
that stem has resided the longest, all the religious structures 
they acknowledge are bell-shaped, notoriously made of straw, 
rushes, mats, and poles ; or, at most, they are of a Mongolic 
character, built with wood and mortar. Now, if we compare 
the Egyptian pyramids, the ruins of the supposed ten)ples of 
Belus or tower of Babylon, and of Baradan in Persia, it will 
be found that one of them certainly had four towers, and, 
from the shape of the ruins, it had also a projection or 
propylon, characteristics which mostly occur again, and with 
the same cardinal aspects, as the great Moral of Suka, in Java, 
of Temurri, at Poppara ; that at Atte Hura, and the base of 
the Fiatookas, like the Mooau at Tonga, and others in Poly- 
nesia ; there are occasionally similarly constructed successive 
terraces, forming pyramidal elevations in the Marquesas and 
elsewhere, and these are again repeated in America, with 
exactly the same forms — one of these at Cholula, exceeding 
in area, and in cubic quantity of artificial accumulation, both 
the great tower of Belus, and the great pyramid of Cheops, 
taken together.^ The forms of all these structures indicate a 
common religious system, more ancient than the extant idola- 
tries ; they may be claimed by a solar theism, distinct from the 
subsequent elaborate astronomical religions, but containing the 
basis of what has since been ascribed to Foh and Budha, 
which both Mongolic and Eastern Caucasians have long revered 
on the continent, and in the Asiatic Archipelago. 

The Malay. form, whether composed of two normal types, or 
of three, in various quantities of admixture, can be traced to 
Ceylon, where the blowpipe, the outrigger canoe, and other 
peculiar customs and words, give evidence that it visited at 
least the southern portion of the island. In the same manner, 

* The base is square, and covers forty-four acres, the upper platform is 
somewhat more than one acre. The elevation at present is 177 feet ; but 
this is partially diminished by the ruinous state of the lowest platform, 
and is exclusive of the temple which adorns the summit. 



250 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

and b}'- like evidence, they are found to be a component part of 
the populations in North Australia, Polynesia, and probably in 
the eastern portions of South America, where the blowpipe is 
likewise in use, and a variety of practices, customs, opinions, 
weapons, and industrial arts ; feather mantles and caps, tas- 
selled swords and war-clubs, support the opinion of a commu- 
nity of origin, which is still further substantiated by legends 
and traditions. 

The Malays, as before hinted, do not extend far into the 
interior of the east coast of Sumatra; the local tribes belong to 
the Orangulu, extending thence to the Rejang Islands; appar- 
ently they originate from a mixture of the Negro type with 
aberrant Caucasians, or Indo-Chinese, having the slender 
points, pale yellow color, and even the practice of allowing the 
nails to grow, of a Mongolic character, though they crush the 
nose and draw out the ears, in order to look more like Papuas. 
In Java, the Malay stem is still less predominant ; for the 
oldest population was a race of Negro cannibals, termed 
Gunos, who were assailed and driven into the mountain fast- 
nesses by a nautical people, the real Javanese, under the com- 
mand of their legendary hero, Passara. Now this name, as 
well as Javana, i. e., mixed, a mixed people, are both of San- 
scrit origin, and show that the invaders were Indo-Caucasians, 
with perhaps only a mixture of Mongolic, that is, Malay 
blood; the oldest religious edifices are of Indian character; 
and from names, such as Pen-y-gawa for a chief; Kralon, a 
palace ; Sasakadom, a hall or temple, might indicate a branch 
of Pandoo wanderers, Gomerians, allied to the Pelasgian and 
Celtic tribes of the west, — a conjecture further strengthened 
by the Moral pyramid of Suka before mentioned. The Java- 
nese appear to have sent colonists to Madagascar, since known 
by the name of Jacalvas, who similarly waged war against 
the cannibal Anachimous, and were for many ages noted 
marine pirates, distinct from the Joasmees, who are of Arabian 
origin. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES^ 251 

Further east, in the island of Borneo, where true Malays 
have the ascendency, but only reside on the coasts, there is 
another people distinct from them, partly sedentary and in part 
exclusively nautical. These are the Orang Darrah and Orang 
Laut, men of the soil and men of the sea, one maintaining an 
unequal struggle against the Malays, and the other pirates 
from birth, and always residing on board their proas ; freeboot- 
ers in every sense, and ready to aid in the oppression of their 
kindred race inhabiting the interior. Both are nationally 
denominated Dyaks, are fairer than the Malays, and most 
likely allied to the Joasmees before noticed. They are of the 
Horafoura stem, also marine adventurers, who, having for ages 
frequented the north coast of New Holland, have certainly 
caused a further hybridism among the Papuas of that region, 
and are themselves the most mixed branch of Indo-Caucasians 
in Australasia, with a language and religious notions originally 
unconnected with any Malay source. The tribes of Borneo, 
here enumerated, are evidently older possessors of the soil 
than the Malays, and the most ancient in these seas excepting 
the Eastern Negroes, who may be regarded as absorbed by them 
in this great island, since none of the purely woolly-haired 
stock are now known to remain in the country. 

Celebes is principally inhabited by the Bonn, Bouginee, 
Buges, or Bugesses, of which one nation is called the Macas- 
sar, and the whole appear to be of the same stem as the Hora- 
fouras. Here they are again fairer than the Malays, with 
very long black hair, and soft silky beards and whiskers. 
Their original language, more allied to southern dialects of 
India, with the admixture of Sanscrit, is now much corrupted 
by the Malayan. The women of this island are the hand- 
somest and most polished of the eastern seas, setting the fash- 
ions which other nations strive to imitate; and a more 
advanced civilization is shown in several articles of their man- 
ufacture, which are carried in native vessels as far as Fort 
Cornwallis. The male population are mercantile resolute sea- 



252 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

men, and the reputation they possess for valor has caused the 
name of Macassar to be regarded as equivalent to warrior. It 
may be questioned, whether the possession of some parts of 
Malacca, near Salengore, and Point Romania, at no great dis- 
tance from remains of the Samang expelled Oriental Negroes, 
is not also an indication that the "Buoes tribe came from this 
portion of the continent. 

The same observation is equally applicable to the Magin- 
danao, who are also Horafouras, that reached the island when 
the Philippines were still wholly possessed by Papuas or 
Bangel-bangel savages. Such, again, are the Bissayans of 
Lucon ; the races found onwards to Tywan or Formosa, and 
the Ladrones, who are all possessed of Hindoo tokens of 
affinity, mixed with evidence of an original consanguinity with 
the Japanese, particularly to the eastward ; and, according as 
either preponderates, adopting a Caucasian or a Mongolic 
ratiocination : these mental qualifications are evinced in the 
readiness many have shov/n to abandon their ancient idolatry ; 
and the preference they give to the law of Mohammed, rather 
than to the Christian, is in consequence of the former having 
had merely teachers to spread the new doctrines, while the latter 
endeavored to make proselytes by means of Portuguese and 
Spanish conquerors. Of all these tribes, the Pagans were, or 
still are, cannibals ; the others have certain forms of govern- 
ments established, and often written laws, in alphabets of their 
own construction, having scarcely any retrospect to Chinese 
ideas ; and they were so little in communication with pure 
Mongols, that it was not until after the arrival of European 
navigators, that bodies of colonists, from the celestial empire, 
made their appearance in Lu^on and Java. Even in Formosa 
the population was alien, until refugee emigrants, escaping 
from Mantchou conquest, reached the island in the seventeenth 
century, when the Dutch were already in possession of it. 

But notwithstanding this historical fact, Caucasians from 
Eastern China, Indo- Arabs from Western Asia, and unnamed 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 253 

tribes from the Malay peninsula, seamen from choice or neces- 
sity, had long before laid the basis of the resident populations, 
being in a more or less state of degradation by Oriental Negro 
interunions. They formed the numerous pirate communities, 
Orang Laut, Sea Gypsies, Jacalvas in Madagascar, Idaan, 
Marootzie, Sea Dyaks in Celebes, Biagoos or Bragus in Bor- 
neo, some partially sedentary, others entirely dwellers on the 
seas, shifting their stations with the monsoon, so as to be 
always under the lee of land; and, among other supersti- 
tions, like western Hindoos, sending a model canoe, cursed and 
loaded with the sins of the people, far away on the ocean. 
Their legends and romances, most particularly in Sumatra and 
Java, are of Hindoo origin; and vast temples of Indian divin- 
ities, such as that of Boro-budor in Java, point to a Brahmin- 
ical religious system prevailing there before the Arabian inno- 
vations of Islam came among them. From families of these 
tribes, rather than from pure Malays, the majority of the 
Polynesian islanders are composed; their chiefs still bearing 
the marks of higher Caucasian castes than the vulgar, who 
were, from the first, servants and rowers ; and both together 
are the descendants of wanderers, blown off by untoward mon- 
soons, in like manner as are still frequently witnessed, in a 
similar condition, on most islands of the South Seas. 

While the European navigator and conqueror is invariably 
held to be an enemy, nothing but ancient amicable reminis- 
cences can account for the peaceful passage of Chinese and 
Japanese traders through most, if not all, the seas infested by 
the vast pirate fleets before mentioned. A tacit law of com- 
mon affinity binds the inhabitants of the South SeaS, even to 
the most remote islands, sufficiently to receive among them the 
shipwrecked or storm-driven wanderer on equal terms, excepting 
where the resident population is of purer Papua stock; for 
these regard all others as conquerors, and usually treat them 
in the light of victims. 

The South Sea islanders, beside feature, hair, and personal 
22 



254 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

conformation, show their consanguinity with Caucasians most 
distinctly in the structure of their minds. While other savages 
and barbarians are incurious, merely satisfied with childish sur- 
prise, or value only the superior means of destruction possessed 
by Europeans ; they alone, though so near the savage state 
when first visited by our navigators, were struck with the 
wonders of civilization in a right spirit. No other tribe of 
Man was so desirous of learning the useful, the peaceful, and 
ornamental arts of Europe. Some examples may be quoted of 
other races listening with respect to the doctrines of religion, 
and becoming imperfect proselytes ; but the Polynesians, even 
when they were still cannibals, embraced Christianity with 
ardor, and now hold it with an intelligent sincerity, that 
enables converts of a late date to become messengers of peace 
to other tribes, and open the path for more educated teachers. 
They alone have shown examples of chiefs, quitting the pleas- 
ures and prejudices of local consideration, who, for the pure 
love of benefiting their native land, have entered as common 
sailors on board British ships, that they might visit England, 
see, learn, and adopt improvements in ship-building, naviga- 
tion, and agriculture ; procure seeds of triticum and legumin- 
ous plants, and advance civilization. Others used the pleni- 
tude of power to encourage the same object, to learn the alpha- 
bet, to read, write and cipher ; they set up a printing-press, and 
had the honor to throw off the first printed words of the native 
language. They have shown, when at war with the white 
men of Europe, instances of romantic forbearance and valor, 
under impressions of unjustly suffering a public wrong. All 
these seeds of human progress have developed in the first gen- 
eration, since they have become acquainted with better things, 
and are going on notwithstanding the evil examples but too 
commonly held out to them. If, therefore, Frederick Cuvier, 
when descanting on the trifling external . characters of some 
mammalia, nearly allied in structure, be right to recommend 
rigorous researches in their relative moral instincts and inteUi" 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 255 

gencBi in order, by their aid, to establish a primasval unity of a 
genus, how much more important must the same method prove 
in researches after the aboriginal unity of a sub-typical stem 
of Man. If there were no such other indications as have 
already been noticed, by these facts alone we may with confi- 
dence appeal to the presence of a considerable portion of Cau- 
casian blood, in the composition of the master race of the 
Polynesian islands. It is undeniably conspicuous in some of 
the groups, less so in others, and evident in despite of linguistic 
considerations, which, to say the least, are still not sufficiently 
mature to admit the generalizing conclusions of Humboldt. 
The Maori tongue of New Zealand is an example, which, 
while it shows the presence of a Semitic element in the com- 
position, is but feebly tinged with Malay ; perhaps, by reason 
of the great majority of its component words being the offspring 
of Papua dialects, the basis of the population being originally 
of Eastern Negro derivation, only by degrees amalgamated or 
destroyed. Whence these two races came, can now be only 
conjectured from the reminiscences of the people, that two 
immigrations originally took place on these islands ; they still 
name the localities, and assert one to have come from the east 
and the other from the west. To individuals or families of the 
earliest Polynesian wanderers, the introduction of at least one 
system of doctrine, in South America, may be ascribed ; and 
to another, of Caucaso-Mongolians, a second, which appears to 
have reached the north-west coast, and finally to have estab- 
lished itself on the plateau of Anahuac. These considerations 
lead us to the New Continent, before the two historical archi- 
typical stocks of the Old can be traced out without interrup- 
tion. 

THE AMERICAN SUB-TYPICAL STEM. 

Though researches on the primitive population of America 
may be deemed unphilosophical, because the conclusions are 



256 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

not amenable to positive proofs, yet the inquiry is not without 
profit; and surely, so long as physiologists continue to admit 
the maxim, that mankind consists of one species only, it must 
involve, as a consequence, the necessity of migration, in order 
to people the earth in all its habitable portions ; or it demands 
a plural creation of the single species, sufficiently diversified to 
be adapted to the varieties of climate and circumstances 
wherein they are found to exist; in which case, the term 
"specie;?" assumes a different acceptation, and confounds the 
notions hitherto attached to it, notwithstanding that no positive 
definition has been undeniably established to guide the natu- 
ralist. 

Alwaj'-s regarding the flat-headed Paltas, Aturians, or 
primaeval race of South America, as anomalous, though evi- 
dently mixed with tribes of a more marked origin, and admit- 
ting that of them some small clans, such as the so-called Frog 
Indians, with probably others, are still in being about the val- 
leys on the east side of the Cordilleras, we cannot but remark, 
considering the antiquity of the deposits and extensive range 
where their bones are discovered, (from Brazil to the west 
coast of America,) that the stock is fast passing away. It has 
been supplanted for ages, by the Guarany and other nations 
in Brazil, whose Malay aspect countenances the supposition of 
their original arrival in the New World somewhere about the 
Californian coast, whither they seem to have transported, along 
with legends already pointed out, the practices of boring the 
septum of the nostrils, the lobes of the ears, and even the lips 
and cheek-bones, for the purpose of inserting therein bits of 
bone, of shells, wood, feather, or leaves."^ These, and other 
fi^shions before described, they have in common with many 
islanders of the South Seas and coasts of the Northern Pacific ; 

* Dr. Bnichcll, Prince Maximilian of Wied, and many other travellers, 
entertain similar ideas with ourselves. The present physiologists who 
draw other inferences, are not always reconcilable to each other when 
their arguments are generalized. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 257 

and, if they are not of foreign origin, they most assuredly are 
startling coincidences. But that these, and nearly all other 
invaders of the west coast, are intermixed with the flat-headed 
aboriginals, is shown in the artificial means employed by the 
former to obtain the resemblance of the flat-head conformation; 
inflicting for this purpose daily torture upon their infants, till 
the desired effect is produced. 

Torture, self-imposed, is indeed a part of the education of 
most American tribes, and the habit is sufficiently indicative 
of the small irritability of fibre they possess, in common with 
the Mongolic and Indo-Papua races of Asia. 

If the typical Flatheads were not a distinct species of Man, 
they were, at least, the oldest and first wanderers that reached 
the American continent.^^ They appear to have possessed in 
Peru, elements of social progress before strangers came among 
them, provided always that the Titicaca and other remains of 
this type represent the Peruvian people before the Incas 
obtained the sway.t The question would certainly be more 
doubtful, if the imitation of their cranial form had not been 
adopted by races of strangers in both Americas, and even by 
the aquiline-nosed hero tribes, whose portraits still adorn the 
ruined temples of Yucatan, where they represent giant divini- 

* Natives of scattered southern islands, such as the Malecolese, and 
sallow Papua-BIalays of some sandal-wood islands, all distinctly marked 
with very elevated frontal bones, seem to countenance the probability that 
there were men of this form in Polynesia, but then their frontal does not 
appear depressed. 

t There is a statement somewhere, that the Incas permitted one or more 
villages of Flatheads, taken during a war of conquest to the east of the 
Andes, to settle near the capital ; l)ut this seems to be at variance with 
Dr. Tschudi's observations. It may be right to repeat here, that writers 
speak often in very indefinite terms of American flat-headed tribes, there 
being certainly three very difierent in form ; the first, those whose crania 
are naturally depressed ; the second, with the occiput obliquely flattened 
in a vertical manner (this belongs also to Peru, and is seen on the Yuca- 
tan images) ; the third is the North American, where both the frontal 
and occiput are pressed down, bulging out laterally. See Plate I. 

22* 



258 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

ties in the character of conquerors. Such homage was never 
paid by conquerors to the vanquished, unless these last were 
in possession of indisputable superiority in arts, or in the forms 
of their institutions, and then the consequence is natural. We 
see the proofs of it in the Turkish imitations of the Byzan- 
tines, and in the Mongolic of the Chinese. 

The foot of Man has pressed many a soil which later trav- 
ellers assume was never trodden before them. Navigating 
antiquity knew many geographical facts that scholastic preju- 
dice neglected for the sake of grammatical pursuits. From 
King Alfred's writings we know the voyage of Othere towards 
the North Pole ; and that even from England navigators vis- 
ited distant seas in the ninth century. Dicuil's incidental 
notice of Iceland, in the beginning of the same age, was not 
observed till of late years. The Scandinavian discovery of 
Greenland was long doubted; though it is now proved that 
these hardy seamen pushed their discovery along the coasts of 
America, beyond the equator, to Brazil. We have discredited, 
with equal resoluteness, the discovery of Nevvfoundland by the 
brothers Zeni, Venetian navigators, seventy years before the 
voyage of Columbus, according to Cardinal Zurla. Docu- 
ments published at Copenhagen prove the same coast to have 
been repeatedly visited by the Northmen from the years 980 
and 1000 to 13S0 ; and the Biscayen whalers seem to have 
equally known this region by an accidental south-easterly 
storm, which drove them from their fishing station off the 
Irish shores, in the reign of King Henry VI., that is, about 
1450 ; and all this incredulity and apathy, when the names 
of Brazil, of Antillia,and the country known as Newfoundland, 
were already noted, though not correctly laid down, in the chart 
of Andrea Bianca, bearing date 1436, still in the library of St. 
Marc at Venice. Columbus himself found the rudder of a ship 
cast on the beach at Guadaloupe. This would be a natural 
consequence of any ship being disabled, and driven to the 
south-west, till it falls in with the trade winds, which, perpetu- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 269 

ally blowing in the same direction with the currents westward, 
drive all floating bodies onwards to the coast of the New 
World."^ What, therefore, the ancients, and more particularly 
the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, nay, the Celtse may have 
done, beyond the Atlantic, is not even entirely a conjectural 
question, since there are still extant elements of a Semitic dia- 
lect in certain tribes of South America, and of Celtic in the 
north; and without the arrival of some mariners from the 
coasts of the Old Continent, the legend of Quelsalcoatle, a 
Toltecan legislator, with Badhistic, perhaps Christian dogmas, 
could not have been framed prior to the arrival of the Spaniard ; 
yet Cortez was told that he returned to the east; and hence 
arose that general belief, that beings of a superior nature would 
again visit the west from their abode beyond the broad ocean, 
which was fully established in Anahuac.t But, stimulated by 
the discoveries of the Portuguese, the power and commercial 
vigilance of Spain successfully blinded for a time the scholastic 
apathy of the rest of Europe, and persuaded political ignorance 
that it was Columbus who first made the discovery of America. 
Thus, every probability supports the opinion, that men from 
Europe or Western Africa had reached the New World long 
before the assumed discovery of Columbus ; yet it does not 
follow that any who were carried to the west by the trade 
winds ever returned. The Scandinavians, however, reached the 
coast at a high latitude, where the north-western winds pre- 
vail in autumn, and the marine current sets towards Europe. 

* See Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, No. 75, October, Jan., 
1845, where this question is treated more at length, in a notice of the 
Travels of Prince Maximilian of Wied. 

t If the painted chronology of the Mexicans could be relied on, the 
legislator priest came with the Toltecs to the plateau of Anahuac, which 
would then be in A. D. 648. It was asserted, that he began the pyramid 
of Cholula, There was another legislator priest, named Votan, who 
arrived much earlier in Mexico, but then the chronology now admitted 
must be wrong. See Don Antonio del Rio. Teatro critico Americano, 
by F. Cabrera. 



260 NATUEAL HISTORY OF 

Hence they returned to Iceland or to Norway with little 
uncertainty. 

Disregarding for a moment the probabilities already men- 
tioned of the subsidence of a great extent of land in the Pacific 
Ocean, it is evident that from the East of Asia and the Poly- 
nesian Islands, the principal immigrations of mankind have 
taken place. Of these the Pitcairn and Easter Islands, near- 
est to the coast of South America, are remarkable for the co- 
lossal idols of stone, which have been observed in both, though 
the first was for a time believed never to have been inhabited 
before the arrival of the mutineers of the Bounty, and the 
other is now in the possession of a race who do not claim 
the fabrication of them. It may be observed, in confirmation 
of the removal of Polynesians by war, by design, or by stress 
of weather, to the eastward, that to the 20th degree of south 
latitude, and to more than 200 leagues at sea, a south-west 
and south cold wind blows, with a current coming from the 
pole, and, setting towards the south-west coast, drives float- 
ing bodies on the shores of Chili. Easter Island, the farthest 
eastward of all the Polynesian groups containing inhabitants, 
is as remote from them as from the longitude where these 
winds and currents prevail ; hence the casual arrival of Poly- 
nesian wanderers could scarcely fail to reach the coast of Chili ; 
and subsequently they were, it is obvious, driven eastward, to 
commix with the Brazilian tribes, and southward, to form the 
race of Araucas ; others, perhaps from the Sandwich Islands, 
are the progenitors of the tribes on the Sacramento river, on the 
north-west coast, where the w^omen still weaY the Maro, and 
the men have short undulating hair, with beard and whiskers 
very soft and silky. 

That another immigration was continuous for ages from the 
east of Asia, is sufficiently indicated by the pressure of nations, 
so far as it is known in America, being always from the north- 
west coasts, eastward and southward, to the beginning of the thir- 
teenth century. It appears to have taken place mostly by the 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 261 

Aleutian Islands, and southward, to the Columbia and Cali- 
fornia. Here, also, the facilities for this purpose were mostly 
furnished by nature, and the propelling cause, when landed, is 
likewise detected, by the country supplying little food between 
the Rocky Mountains and the sea. The Northern Pacific was 
navigated by Japanese tribes in ancient times, and is so even 
now, although, since the appearance of European navigators, 
the trade has been discontinued, if not absolutely forbidden ; 
yet, within these few years, a British vessel boarded a Japa- 
nese junk within two days' sail of the California coast, and 
found that it had drifted, without human care, for many 
months, and that, of forty of the ship's company, only seven 
persons survived. This vessel, having lost its course, was car- 
ried by the prevailing winds and currents of that portion of the 
Pacific to the eastward, and was in all probability wrecked on 
the American coast, after the living people had been taken out 
of her and saved.^ 

Here then, we have likewise, on the east side, instances, not 
of facilities, but of necessary consequences, of vessels reaching 
the west coast, so soon as they are placed within the influence 
of the winds and currents which prevail, either constantly or 
at certain periods of the year, in the latitudes above indicated ; 
nor is there a want of proof that canoes, with a proportion 
of Polynesians, have survived the hardships of four months at 
sea, nor that they have been found at eight hundred leagues' 
distance from their homes ; for both facts are noticed by our 
navigators in the tropical Pacific; and by the Aleutians, a con- 
tinuous chain of islands passing from one quarter of the globe 
to the other, a route is established, as if they were intended for 
an easy and speedy method of crossing between them. But 
though timber for canoes and sea-rafts is abundant, both on the 
north and south points of departure, there is scarcely any near 

* They were carried to the Sandwich Islands, and thence, by the first 
opportunity, sent on to their native land. 



262 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

the western coast of America to keep up marine habits, nor are 
there navigable rivers without bars, nor ports with safe places 
for landing, but mostly everywhere an open, barren, sandy, or 
rocky shore, beaten by a heavy surf.^ Hence, on this side of 
the Americas, if arrivals were not frequent, departures were 
impossible, excepting in the more northern latitudes ; and that 
these had been crossed and recrossed may be presumed, even 
in case the assertion of Chinese scholars, that America was 
known by the name of Fu-sang, and mentioned in the great 
annals of the celestial empire, down to the fifth century of our 
era, was a mistake.! The absence of Chinese forms of speech 
on the American continent is not absolute, since the Othomi 
language, spoken on the north of the valley of Mexico, is mon- 
osyllabic. In Europe, we know the existing eastern tongues 
of the Mongolic stock so imperfectly, that the work of Dr. 
Pfitzmayer on the Japanese, though not directed towards the 
spoken dialects of the more remote islands of the empire, yet 
shows that the learned had, until lately, a very slight acquaint- 
ance with it, and often mistook written Chinese for the Niphon 
language.! Even the learned Chinese is more a lettered than 
a nationally spoken vehicle of thought ; and in both the em- 
pires, the written is partly different from the spoken tongues, 
though the characters, being symbols instead of alphabetical 

* The surf in many places is as high and violent as at Madras, and 
there being little wood procurable on the coast, the natives invented great 
floats of inflated sealskins, which are still in use. They had formerly cat- 
amarans, like those on the Coromandel coast. Models of these are 
frequently found, with a double-hladed paddle, in the graves of the aborigi- 
nal inhabitants ; but, from California to Peru, rafts, balzas, or janjadas, 
served, capable of carrying great loads with safety, sailing with uncom- 
mon speed. See Charnock's Marine Architecture, vol. i., p. 13. Balza 
wood is a very light kind of palrn. 

t See C. Frederick Neumann and De Guines, though Klaproth sup- 
poses Niphon or Japan is meant ; Japan, however, bears a different name 
or names in the same annals. 

t A Dictionary in the so-called Tirokana characters, containing 40,000 
wordsj is in preparation by Dr. Pfitzmayer, at Vienna. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 263 

signs, can be interpreted by words in several languages, differ- 
ing in every other respect from each other. Thus, there can- 
not be a reliance on arguments drawn from the difference of 
American languages from the Mongolic ; they vary among the 
distinct families of North America, as much as from any Tah- 
tar tongue ; and there exist sufficient coincidences and similar- 
ities in the sounds of words, as well as in the opinions, man- 
ners and practices of the natives, resembling those of Eastern 
Asia, when taken with the other arguments already produced, 
as to overthrow the whole fabric of an exclusively American 
aboriginal species or form of man, constituting the races of that 
continent, always excepting the Flathead type, which, it must 
be owned, constitutes an ingredient very generally diffused 
through the native tribes, but not their principal portion. 
Even the most determined advocates of the original unity of the 
races reject the Esquimaux, who are admitted to be of an 
Asiatic stock, when they should also reflect, that, in the north- 
ern portion, several tribes of the present Indians, such as the 
Iroquois, confess that they dwelt themselves in the high north 
before they migrated to their present habitation; while the 
Tschutski of Eastern Asia are assumed to be of the American 
stem ; accommodating the conclusion to a reversed order of migra- 
tion, which, with singular inconsistency, admits the practicabil- 
ity, on hypothetical grounds, in favor of utter savages, what it 
refuses to the ancient and middle ages of great and organized 
nations, who were navigators both on the east and west of the 
New World, and for times when facilities for that purpose were 
apparently more at hand than in later ages ; for, by strangely re- 
versing the natural order of human dispersion, another and prob- 
ably not inconsiderable transition from Asia is disregarded ; one 
which, being taken in connection with the more immediate 
facility, by an entire, or almost an entire, communication by 
land, when Behring's Straits had not yet greatly widened, 
obviated all serious difficulty. At that period not only Esqui- 
maux, but Finnic, and the north-eastern Caucasian races, here- 



264 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

after to be mentioned, had no doubt inducements which brought 
the parent families of the high-nosed and other nations of 
North America to that continent ; and the influence of rigor- 
ous winter seasons must have gradually induced them to seek 
milder latitudes, where more plentiful means of subsistence 
were accessible, in the same manner as the nations of northern 
Asia and Europe have and ever will continue to do when they 
have a chance of success. It is perhaps here that we must 
look for the sources of those multiplied evidences of Asiatic 
origin, shown by most, if not all, the American tribes, both 
those of the Mongolic or of the beardless stock, and of the true 
Caucasian ; for, when the former of these had journeyed almost 
entirely southward, tribes of the latter appear to have occupied 
their abandoned localities, and, in a pure condition, or blended 
with such as remained behind, to have passed on across the 
isthmus, or the straits, to the American shore, whither they, in 
their turn, were followed by the Esquimaux or Skrelings, who, 
it is evident, came last, since their descendants have never been 
able to penetrate more to the south than the shores of Nootka. 
All these occurrences coincide with the known progress of 
the Caucasian nations to western Asia and to Europe. They 
account for the presence of similar inscriptions in Siberia and 
in America, and for many of the facts of the peopling of the 
new continent at a later period than the west of the Old World ; 
they admit, without violence, the usual immigrations of dis- 
tressed marine wanderers, whether they were of Malay or of 
Phoenician origin, and even of African as well as Oriental 
Negroes ; such as the colony of the former found at Cariquel, 
near the Isthmus of Darien, or the now exterminated Char- 
ruans ^ of the Guarani, or, like the latter, found in a mixed 
state on the shores of California. This view gives sufficient 
time for the local intermixture of the races with the flat-headed 

* These may be the same Sir Walter Raleigh mentions as having lank 
hair in Guiana, where he observed them. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 265 

aboriginal, whose peaceful phlegmatic habits readily yielded to 
the turbulent activity of male adventurers, and accounts for the 
various other phenomena which attend the question under con- 
sideration. 

In the successive struggles of nations, which must have 
ensued, for hunting grounds or for dominion, the more advanced 
have evidently been obliged to yield to those from the north. 
Whether both originally came from the same quarter, or one 
had previously arrived by a marine route, the result was the 
same. The proofs are seen in the ruins of vast castral cities, 
and human tumuli, still extant in the United States ; in the 
Maen Stones and Cromlehs of the more eastern regions ;'^ in 
the pyramids and temples possessed by the successive nations 
of Mexico ; and, if the singularly squared cone in the middle 
of a lake of Northern California be wholly or in part the work 
of Man, it may be a memorial of departure, or a mark of direc- 
tion for other tribes, perhaps similar to the semi-artificial pile 
of Chehel Suton — that antique landmark of migration, and 
directing guide of caravans, situated on the edge of the western 
Gobi desert, almost midway between Pekin and Constantinople, 
or Serica and Byzantium. At all events, it would then point 
out the station which the builders of similar edifices in America 
once occupied in their earliest day, and confirm the conjecture 
that the Wapisians of Guiana, at least, are of those tribes, 
which, at a period long anterior to the march of the Ulmecks 
and Toltecs, nations of a kindred race, had passed over the pla- 
teau of Anahuac. Beside the monosyllabic Othomi language, 
there is a similar mode of connecting sounds into long strung 
words, pervading the American, Astec and Maya, approach- 
ing Finnic and Tahtar dialects ; the syllables Ac or Ak^ TJk 
and Kuk^ often recur in the northern Indian tongues ; and TUu 
and Tie in the Mexican ; sounds which are again found in the 
speech of the Arctic nations of both continents. In addition to 

* At North Salem, New York ; at Winipignan river, on the Ohio, &c. 
23 



266 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

these rude and simple characteristics of a mixed Tahtar and 
Finnic form of speech, there are Scythic words, that is, words 
of Sanscrit origin, which can scarcely be coincidences, and 
rather show that some tribes, perhaps of kindred Yuchi, passed 
cy^r to the western continent. Again, Semitic words occur 
rather profusely in the Carib and Makusi dialects,^ and strik- 
ing coincidences of similarity between certain tribes of Aus- 
tralia and the Fuegians of the Straits of Magellan are pointed 
out by Captain Stokes, in his voyage of discovery lately pub- 
lished. 

One, more, or all the nations of America had, besides, creeds, 
usages, and traditions, in common with stems of the Old 
Continent, and particularly with Asiatic tribes. Such' among 
others, were the diluvian legends and the celestial dragons' 
attempts to devour the moon during the appearance of an 
eclipse. Next, there still exists in the northern portion a basis 
of pure Deism, coinciding with the common belief of all the 
nations of high and northern Asia. It was ever independent 
of tribal and subordinate divinities, and admits of various 
forms, such as Shamanism, with its demonology, and the more 
moral system of Budhism ; one being outwardly remarkable 
for sorcery, incantation, the magical drum, and rattles ; the 
other for several religious monastic orders, for penances, self- 

* Thus, in the Dakotah dialects, which convert M to W, the Teutonic 
Mag, large, becomes Wah and Wak, great, superior, master. Wehrman, 
warrior, is converted to Wcrow ante, a war chief, &c. Sachem, a priest 
chief, may be derived from the same root as seg-her, a priest, from sagen, 
to speak, and belong to the series with gesach, schah, &c., authority, right 
to speak, to command. Hooloo is holy, sacred ; min, many, plural ; Hogh 
or Oug, high, superior, &c. - In other dialects we find Eloa to denote 
God ; and, in the Carib, Makusi, &c., there are, among many other, 
Tamoosi, Phoenician, Tammxis, for God ; Karbet is the same as Grabit, 
a house ; together with usages and opinions closely allied to those of the 
ancient nations of Syria. The Mexican words, Atzlan, Tlapallan, Teno- 
titslan, without radical meanings in the language, are readily convertible 
into very appropriate appellations in several Caucasian languages. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 267 

mortification, and undying chief-priests, and both recurring in 
the New World ; nay, tokens of what seems a Christian doc- 
trine are detected in the worship of the cross, repeatedly found 
carved among the ruins of Palenque. There are, moreover, 
evidences of Hebrew lore in the metal plates dug out of the 
same ruins, where the serpent is represented twisted round a 
tree; and another, with a naked human figure, kneeling in 
the attitude of supplication, surrounded by huge monsters, 
among trees of a tropical forest.^ What makes these repre- 
sentations still more remarkable, is, that though they belong 
to the high-nosed Toltecs, the mystical figure in distress has 
neither the features nor flat occiput of that people, nor the 
posture of prayer which belonged to the idolatrous nations of 
Anahuac. They had, it is true, a serpent or Naga worship, 
and believed that tutelary genii appeared to mortals in the 
animal forms assigned to constellations. But this very fact 
is again an indication that even the astronomical signs of 
Asia had passed over to them, for they were figured in astro- 
logical books which were employed for incantations by an Aste- 
can order of priests. The medicine men, with their drums, 
are still perfect counterparts of Siberian Shamans, who per- 
form their mummeries with a like instrument, similarly 
painted. 

The nations of Anahuac were acquainted, like the Tahtars, 
with a great dragon standard ; had, like the Thibetans, huge 
banner lances, such as are still planted before Lamaite tem- 
ples and palaces ; and there were ensign spears similar to 
those of ancient Bactria : one of these was the Shiemagun of 
the Chippeways, the other was the guiding sign of the Choc- 
taws, during their great migration from the west. The Mexi- 
cans had some adorned with wings and feathers like the Huns 

* The priesthood kneaded maize flour with blood, and baked it in the 
form of the god of war, then broke and gave it in morsels to the people, 
who partook with signs of humiliation ! See Prescott's valuable History. 
Was this Budhism ? 



268 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

and early Turks. The nations of the plateau of Mexico had 
all a practice of fixing several ensigns or banners, stuck in 
ferula, at the back of a warrior, like the earlier Chinese, or 
they attached them to their shields ; which was likewise not 
unexampled in Asia. Symbolical devices, almost amounting 
to real heraldry, designating even at this time many tribes of 
North America, were thoroughly understood in Mexico, and 
are likewise well known to all the Tahtar nations of Asia. 
They had, it is asserted, the use of a peculiarly Chinese instru- 
ment, the well-known gong ; but more likely it was a great 
drum, audible, according to Bernal Diaz, to the distance of 
two leagues ; the same as the Nakara of Southern Asia. In 
common with Tahtar nations, nuptials were symbolized by the 
ceremony of tying the garments together of the two contract- 
ing parties; and, like them, there was only one lawful wife, 
though there might be a plurality of concubines. In very an- 
cient graves, not far distant from Niagara, human debris have 
been detected, having with them a reversed shell of the whilk 
(Buccinum) exactly similar to the Shonk found in the tumuli 
of ancient Ceylon.^ 

Peru, with its Palta people, instinctively builders, has left 
ruins of huge walls, surpassing the Cyclopean and Pelasgian 
structures of the older continent in bulk, and superior to them 
in artistic skill. From the institutions, religious, humane and 
moral, the legislator of the Incas has rarely been considered 
by the learned to be of indigenous origin, but more generally 
as a Japanese or a Brahmin philosopher, who, if he were an 
Asiatic, certainly did not traverse the Pacific alone. Several 
nations in both parts of the continent, had, like the Oceanians 
of the South Sea, and of the north-east of Asia, a bone thrust 
through the cartilage of the nose ; they had also swords with 
tassel handles, like the Malays, feather mantles, and decora- 

* The fact was communicated to us by Captain Chapman, late Royal 
Engineers, who had examined both instances on the spot. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 269 

tions like natives of the Sandwich and other Polynesian 
islands. 

The progressing nations, and, in particular, among those 
of Anahuac, the Mexicans, were a bearded and hairy race, and, 
being in a state of greater civilization than other American 
tribes, they were in a condition of representing more circum- 
stantially the tenor of their ancestral history. Accordingly, 
they had traditions, supported by hieroglyphical maps, which 
marked the stages of their ancient migration from the north 
to their arrival on the plateau of the Andes, where they 
founded Mexico in 1325 of our era, according to Clavigero. 
They had then already resided at Tula and its vicinity for 
above a century, gradually dislodging other tribes, who had 
successively pressed upon each other from the same quarter. 
These were chiefly the Acalhuans, Chichimecas and Toltecs, 
whose first arrival is referred to so early a time as the year 648 ; 
and even these were posterior to the Ulmecs : but the dates 
may not be safely relied upon ; and the charts themselves, 
though still existing, at least in copies, cannot be deciphered 
with trustworthy precision. The point of primaeval departure 
is, however, designated by the names of Aztlan (the Eden, or 
land of nourishment), and Huehuetlapallan, which has been 
interpreted, the bright abode of ancestors, a region which cer- 
tainly lay in the north ; and, when coupled with the departure, 
includes likewise the west. This region was certainly not the 
valley of the river Gila, in California, notwithstanding that a 
cognate language is still spoken there, and that ruins of mag- 
nitude attest there was anciently a people resident on the spot 
already in a progressive state of civilization. It is probable 
that this people were the Astecans, who may have resided on 
the locality until they had increased to a nation, and were 
forced to depart by pressure from behind ; for sedentary nations 
do not abandon cities and temples but by force, or by the fear 
of foreign and unknown invaders, from whom they expect no 
mercy. It is a curious coincidence of time, that these great 
23* 



270 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

recorded migrations in America correspond sufficiently well 
with the same kind of migratory and invading wars in Asia, 
which precipitated the Yuchi from Chinese Tahtary west- 
ward, and brought the Hyatili or White Huns first to conquer 
Cabul and Bactria ; being followed by trae Mongolic nations 
till their hordes established themselves beyond the Danube 
and the Vistula. These are uncontrovertible signs of the great 
expansion which the beardless . stock then made in north and 
eastern Asia ; and may well account for clans of Caucasians, 
such as still have possession of sundry mountain chains in 
China, taking refuge towards America, by a route sufficiently 
near the Arctic Circle to give the north and west for a true 
point of their first abode on that continent. Followed, as all 
fugitive nations are, by their enemies, no doubt real Mongo- 
lians came after them; and both, in departing from eastern 
Asia, lost their horses and their nautical habits. Thus, these 
migrations of distinct types may be a cause of the intermediate 
character of the present Aleutian Islanders.^ 

With these facts before us, it is vain to assert that all Ameri- 
can races, excepting the Esquimaux, have originally sprung from 
one stock ; for many more coincidences could be enumerated ; 
and while one like the last mentioned is admitted to be of the 
beardless type, of Ouralian or of Finnic origin, surely others 
could migrate in a similar direction, at earlier periods, when, 
in all probability, this passage was much more practicable; 
and, according to observations made by Biot, the climate less 

* See Warden's Antiquites Americaines. Pennant's Arctic Zoology, 
Introduction ; where many other customs, common to the Scythians, and 
to the North American nations, are enumerated. There is a Japanese 
map now in the British Museum, which marks islands in the straits of 
Behring, and notices the region by the name of Ya-zxce (the kingdom of 
the dwarfs), that is, the diminutive Esquimaux. This map, presented by 
Kttmpfer to Sir Hans Sloanc, is, therefore, of comparative antiquity, and 
shows Bchring's Straits to have been known to the Mongolic stock long 
before Behring made the discovery, or Cook fixed the real position of the 
two coasts. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 271 

severe than at present. More than twenty tribes of Indians, 
of the present territory of the United States and Canada, 
record their migration either from the north, or from beyond 
the Rocky Mountains. Many of these nations have therefore 
occupied a high northern latitude on the west coast ; regions 
now mostly in the hands of Esquimaux tribes, who, as they 
have replaced them, have evidently arrived after their depart- 
ure : the former tribes, not emphatically fish-eaters, but hunt- 
ers, when, from single families, or from a race mixed with the 
indigenous Flatheads, they had increased to tribes ; and when 
in that little productive region, where game is rare, they could 
no longer remain stationary, must have sought subsistence in 
and beyond the mountain chain ; for to the east only, with 
the exception of the valleys of California, could they find the 
Bison, the Elk, the white mountain Goat, the Ahzata, Argali, 
prong-horned Antelope, and the wapiti Stag. In pursuit of 
game, they must have come upon the sources and feeders of 
the great rivers that run to the south-east, and fall into the 
Gulf of Mexico or the Atlantic. They would naturally follow 
their course, or crossing the Ohio and Mississippi to richer 
woody regions beyond the Alleghanies, occupy the eastern prov- 
inces of the present United States and Canada. Other tribes 
of the west, probably immigrants of later periods, and pos- 
sessed of higher attainments, even with a remnant of nautical 
means, descended between the islands and the coast, till they 
reached the rivers now significantly denominated de los Mar- 
tires, and de los Piramides ; and thence, crossing the Colorado, 
rested for some ages in the valley of the Gila.=^ Here they 
gradually multiplied, advanced in civilization, and raised those 
structural monuments which are still to be seen in their ruins ; 
thence, in successive waves, ascending the plateau of the An- 
des, they made their appearance in Anahuac, to seize new and 

* Surely these point out two or more of the Astecan halting places. 



272 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

perhaps better settlements ; but, from their new position, event- 
ually forsaking all acquaintance with navigation. 

Thus are shown those successive proceedings of nations in 
the New World, which were counterparts of the well-known 
invasions of the northern tribes in the Old ; both radiating 
from a common centre ; surmounting obstacles of seas, deserts, 
swamps, forests, and mountain-chains ; surviving mutual 
slaughters, victories and defeats, till they reach the utmost 
limits of the habitable earth. If now we inquire whether the 
nations of America attest, in their structure, the various origin 
here shown, or have a uniformity of characteristics, which 
many eminent physiologists, together with Dr. Morton, contend 
for, we shall find great evidence of a common type very gen- 
erally, but not unexceptionably, pervading the nations in ques- 
tion. It is found chiefly in the great vertical prolongation of 
the frontal bone, though this distinction, we have before 
noticed, is not exclusively American : it varies in size, probably, 
according to the degree of intermixture different tribes have 
received — there being, besides, populations on the coasts of 
the sea of Okotsk, and even on Saghalin Island, similarly dis- 
tinguished.^ Many Japanese, particularly Bonzes of the lower 
classes of the nation, have the forehead remarkably depressed. 
In several portions of the New Continent, the oblique eyes, 
complexion, and other characters of Mongols occur, as among 
the Alikhoolis of Terra del Fuego; but the Chilenos have 
strikingly Hindoo features. 

* It is externally apparent, in some abnormal tribes of the Polynesian 
islands, and exclusive of the Flathead Paltas, most conspicuous in peak- 
headed natives of Kotzebue's Sound, on the north-west coast, who, 
though they do not belong to the Esquimaux stem, are more like natives 
of the cast coast of Asia; and if these arc claimed as a portion of the 
Tschutski race, then they would show the last mentioned to be originally 
not American, but Asiatic, nay Finnic ; and, consequently, that the cra- 
nial conformation in question is not peculiar to the New World ; but an 
excessive divergence arising in an abnormal stem, where the sutures close 
more slowly than in the typical stocks. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 273 

In general, however, it is evident that the nations of this 
portion of the globe possess a marked similarity of physical 
characters. They have a small skull, varying in the capacity 
of the cranial chamber from 100 to 60 cubic inches, according 
to Dr. Morton's measurement. It approaches the Mongolian 
in shape, but the summit is more rounded, and the sides are 
less angular. In some tribes there is a somewhat more pointed 
crown, and the back part is often flattened, in most cases arti- 
ficially so ; the cheek-bones are high, the forehead naturally 
rather low and depressed; the nose prominent; in a few tribes 
aquiline; maxillae powerful; the mouth rather large, and the 
lips full, if not tumid. The eyes of all the nations are black, 
and the hair rather scarce, lank, and coarse ; though, among 
the Arauca mountaineers, and also on the west coast, gray 
eyes and lighter colored hair are sometimes seen. These 
tribes, also, are as fair as southern Europeans. The South 
Americans are more yellow than copper-colored ; but in the 
northern portion the skin is reddish, agreeing with the distinct- 
ive name which the native tribes bestow upon themselves ; that 
color being formed by a peculiar tissue below the epidermis, 
according to Flourens, but yet not nearly so vivid as we have 
often observed it to be among French and Spanish fishermen 
in the West Indies.=^ The Caribs are intermediate : some 
tribes of Guiana much darker than Mulattoes, and the Cali- 
fornians almost black, or dark like Samboes. 

In most respects, the aboriginal population may be divided 
into the yellow tropical semi-Malay stem of the eastern regions 
of South America, and the Caucaso-Mongolians of the north, 
and of the Cordilleras, along the whole west coast of the conti- 

* We have personally compared and drawn from life many individuals 
of different tribes: — Fuegians, Brazilians, Arookas, Caribs, Mosquito 
Indians, Seminoles, &c., of the United States, and others in Canada of 
different northern tribes. The highly developed reddish color may be a 
result of the long-continued action of dry, sharp winds in the prairies of 
Upper North America. 



274 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

nent. The frame is, in general, symmetrical, rather tumid ; in 
the one, below the middle stature ; in the other portion, gener- 
ally above it ; and among some tribes, equal to the largest men 
of the old continent. With regard to mental qualifications, the 
nations of North America, not having passed beyond the state 
of hunters, show, for want of the laboring Ox and conquering 
Horse, the characteristics of others in the same condition. 
They are active, vigilant, daring, revengeful, restless, cruel, but 
capable of lofty feelings ; full of hospitality, of the love of truth, 
and of vast earnestness of purpose, when once their attention is 
roused. Ruins still extant in nearly every region of the conti- 
nent, and, still more, history, as written by their enemies, attest 
that they could work out systems of self-development, creating 
civilizations which were fast advancing to a more reasoned 
maturity, notwithstanding that the foundations were often 
stricken dovATi by successive hordes of new invaders, till the 
whole was finally crushed by European zeal and cupidity ; for, 
notwithstanding our view of a foreign element having worked 
in the development of the indigenous social institutions, it must 
be recollected that a few strangers cannot sway a distinct peo- 
ple unprepared to receive their suggestions. They must be 
homogeneous, — the result of time and of national engraftings, 
— before they can take root. Now, the Mexican civilization 
was a reconstruction of one or more preceding it ; and the 
Ulmec and Toltec, so much older, were, most likely, not the 
first that pervaded the warmer regions of Western America ; 
therefore, the American mind, resulting, as we claim it to be, 
from two typical stocks of Man, is only inferior in capacity, so 
far as the existing races are more or less removed from the 
means of attainment of social improvement; and the cold 
philosophy of modern science, which inflicts the accusation, is 
not totally destitute of cognate participation, in producing the 
conditions of existence it stigmatizes. Luckily, a host of 
writers, and among them, lately, Prescott, have fairly summed 
up what the intellectual powers of the aboriginal races had 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 2T5 

already attained, without the intervention of European science. 
Writers, in general, more dazzled with Mexican splendor, 
because that empire was more within reach of European curi- 
osity, have not regarded Peru with sufficient discrimination ; 
perhaps because its splendor and civilization was more suddenly 
and more universally trodden down by the European monsters 
who invaded it; and fewer documents of its condition have 
come down to our time. But the nation which had advanced 
to the established practice of bloodless sacrifice in its worship, 
had surely gone far beyond the Mexicans ; and although we do 
not know how much of scientific progress was the property of 
one or of both the two empires, the bas-relief carving, already 
mentioned, where the sun is represented in the centre of the 
system, with other planets in the irradiated circle around 
it, shows that children of the sun, though they claimed them- 
selves to be, had a better notion of the planetary disposition 
than Europeans possessed to a late period; and that the 
superior men of the nation were not blinded by the solar dog- 
mas of their religion, is proved by the memorable reply of Inca 
Tupac Yupan-gui to the monk Valverde, wherein he rejected 
the belief that the sun was a living body, creating all things ; 
but thought him to be " like an arrow which performs the flight 
intended by the archer who shot it off." The Peruvians of 
history appear to have been a partial compound of naturally 
flat-headed Paltas, and a mixture, probably, of the dominant 
tribes, with partly artificial-flattened occiputs ; but the figures 
of Incas, preserved in early Spanish documents, ofler neither 
of these deformities. The first were, most likely, the working 
castes, the second the privileged, and the last appears to have 
been confined to one sacred family. Cyclopean structures,"^ or 
walls, fortifications, and pyramidal elevations, raised with 
enormous stones, belong, certainly, to the oldest population. 

* Such as Chulucanas, on a secondary ridge of the Cordilleras, as well 
as pyramidal instances of tombs. 



276 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

It is likely that others, particularly those evincing greater skill, 
were constructed during the sway of the second, and that the 
Inca period only adapted them to the system of solar Budhism, 
which it can scarcely be denied formed the basis of their insti- 
tutions. Of the Cromlechs of America appearing to be identi- 
cal with the Celtic, known all over Europe and Asia, we wish 
not to say more than that they are, to a certain extent, evi- 
dence of the early wandering of some Gomerian tribes to the 
New World ; and of the Northmen it is now proved that they 
reached the east coast by a western course from Iceland, and 
wandered much further to the south than was suspected in 
earlier times. Whether any of these survived and amalga- 
mated with the local races, is a question not likely ever to be 
settled. 

The decay, amounting to prospective extinction, observed to 
be the lot of the American races, is, moreover, a further proof 
that they are not a typical people, but that they are stems 
occupying debatable ground, which we have before shown are 
alone liable to annihilation, or to entire absorption. Yet, in 
some parts of the tropical latitudes, in Yucatan for instance, so 
great an amalgamation of the white with indigenous tribes and 
with Negro imported slaves, has taken place, that this mixed 
population, becoming sensible of numerical superiority, as well 
as of the more intense energy they possess in those climates, 
are now asserting their power ; and ultimately this hybrid race 
may prove a more serious opponent to the white man's insa- 
tiable cupidity than the descendants of European conquerors 
have yet had to encounter. 

We have not space to enter into the geographical details of 
the distribution of the indigenous tribes, further than has been 
already done, nor to advert more particularly to their dialects ; 
for hordes, without letters or great national expansion, and 
which are constantly subdividing, exterminating by mutual 
slaughter, or perishing from constitutional liability to disease, 
are therefore by no means able to form durable communities 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 277 

and persisting dialects. This last observation is already per- 
ceptible in the catechisms and prayers printed in the Huron 
and other languages, by French missionaries, not quite a cen- 
tury ago, and now only understood in consequence of daily 
repetition and careful explanation. At least, such was the 
information we received on the spot. One people we must, 
however, except from the rest, namely, the Carib, or that por- 
tion of the Carib tribes which still occupies parts of the mari- 
time border of north-eastern South America, because, as we 
have before observed, many opinions, institutions, and even 
words in their language, bespeak an intercourse that once 
appears to have existed between the ancestors of the present 
families and a Semitic nation, perhaps Phcsnician or Hebrew, 
That they were once not a sedentary nation is evinced, since 
they still refrain from travelling in the interior, unless previ- 
ously prepared for it by peculiar ceremonies, excepting one 
tribe, which is remarkable for enterprise, and, in a small com- 
pany, will fearlessly penetrate among hostile nations, much in 
the character of fighting pedlers. The Caribs were, like their 
prototypes of the Old World, a nautical people, partly cannibals 
and conquerors, over all the islands of the West Indian seas ; 
having commenced, some generations before the arrival of 
Columbus, their career of invasion by those nearest the coast, 
and gradually extending their enterprise to the north and west, 
till they had subdued all to the east of Hayti, where, at the 
time of the Spanish discovery, they had, as yet, only secured 
dominion for themselves in the vicinity of Samana Bay. It is 
erroneously asserted that no indigenous people of America had 
contrived sea-going vessels of any size ; for if the information 
we received while in the country be trustworthy, within a 
sandy portion of the border of the river Yuna, in this very bay 
of Samana, a sunken canoe was found buried, which was 
nearly 100 feet in length, proportionally broad ; and what was 
considered to be sufficient evidence of the period when it had 
perished, was the discovery of a stone vessel, a stone casse-tete, 
24 



278 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

and an axe of flint, all within its hollow. Canoes of great 
capacity were necessary to nautical invaders of populous 
islands, and the materials for constructing them abounded on 
the north coast of South America ; and, indeed, in the northern 
portion, there still remain rude sculptures of very long vessels 
of this class, manned with numerous rowers, particularly on 
tide rocks, in Massachusetts and elsewhere. 

At foot note, page 270, we should have noticed, in confirma- 
tion of the northern and marine migration of some tribes, that 
the Chichimecs relate, that after they emerged out of seven 
"caves" (islands), they travelled to Amassiemecan, or the 
northernmost portion of America. Perhaps they were Aleu- 
tians, and the term caves, if not denoting islands, may refer to 
canoes, which, in many languages, bear names allusive, like 
caves, to hollowness, Alvei. The legend is exceedingly like 
that in Strabo, which relates to the original seven Cyclopeans, 
who first came from Lycia by sea. They evidently designate 
ships' crews, since they began soon after to build works of 
huge stones, such as those near their caves at Nauplia, &;c. 
Votan, the third personage in the Mexican Calendar, according 
to Francisco Nunes, was the leader of seven families, who 
came from an island to America, and then brought seven more 
to the same country. But the bishop of Chiapa is questionable 
authority. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 279 



THE HYPERBOREAN, BEARDLESS, OR MONGOLIC TTPE. 

From what has been stated in the foregoing pages, on the 
two preceding extensive subtypical stems of the great family 
of Man, our chief aim has been to produce some of the reasons 
which, at least, seem to substantiate the conclusion, that both 
are results of amalgamations of two, or of all the three normal 
stocks, separated from their original centres of existence, at dif- 
ferent epochs, part whereof may be of so remote a date that 
they precede a portion of those great territorial dislocations 
already pointed out, which affected both the Northern Pacific 
as well as the equatorial and southern seas. Whether the 
period in question synchronized with the avulsion of the plane 
of earth which originally abutted on the western base of the 
Cordilleras, is not now a question to be discussed in the bear- 
ing it might have on human existence, since there are sufficient 
evidences to show that the present tenants of the island groups 
can mostly be traced to more recent periods ; and the traditions 
of the northern hemisphere, in both continents, tend to prove 
the arctic nations, of 'the present time, to be of comparatively 
late expansion over their now dreary abodes. The question, 
however, is not without some curious circumstances affecting 
the beardless type, which we pointed out as first traceable in 
the north-eastern flanks of the great central table-land of Asia. 
But more attentive search seems to establish the fact, that, even 
there, during many ages, it cannot have been the dominant 
stock ; for as on most other occasions we find the older races of 
Man, that possessed a given country, and were obliged to yield 
to the power of later invaders, hold to the last in the fastnesses 
of mountain ranges, so we observe here, from the Chinese 
annals, whole nations of Caucasians, Kinto-Moey, Yuchi, &c., 
possessed of vast portions of Thibet and Eastern Tahtary, and 



280 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

maintaining their ground to the times immediately preceding 
and succeeding the Christian era, when they were first driven 
westward, whilst others are now found subdued and incorpo- 
rated with the Celestial Empire, though still retaining their 
distinctive characters of ample beard, horizontal eyes, and lofty 
stature. They are spread in population about the river Amour 
and the hill countries, while others, such as the Miao-tze (cat- 
people) and the Mou-lao (wood-rats), occupy, in the south, the 
wildest mountains in Se-tchuen, Koei-tcheou, Houkang, and 
Quangsi, to the frontiers of Quang-tong. None of these 
nations and tribes can have penetrated eastward, from Thibet, 
after the Mongolian races were fully established in the plains. 
They must, therefore, be of anterior date ; and, as we see 
above, in the case of the Yuchi, the residue of the people 
driven from the more fertile plains, by the force of invaders. 
All the way to the Malayan peninsula, every known event 
tends to prove here, as in America, that a succession of invasions 
followed upon each other, from the north, and formed vari- 
ously amalgamated nations, still marked by strong distinctions 
in Indo-China, Australasia, and the South Sea Islands."^ 

The facts here stated, when accepted to the extent they of 
necessity imply, establish that the Mongolian type was not 
prima3vally predominant in Thibet, and, at most, hung on the 
north-eastern flanks of the plateau of Tahtary, in the same 
manner as the woolly-haired appears to have done on the 
southern. Yet there was assuredly a huge development of 
this stock, at the most early human period, which, as it could 
not be concentrated immediately on the high land, was clearly 
produced in the north-east, most probably from the basin of the 

* In proof of the departure of the Mongolic nations from the high north, 
may he shown, that they always look to the south as the object of desire, 
naming the west by the same denomination as the right hand, and the 
east as the left ; therefore totally distinct from Caucasians, who univer- 
sally, from a religious motive, look to the cast, and call the west the 
back. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 281 

upper Lena to the sea of Okotsk, and bounded on the south by 
the mountains of the Jablonoi and Tugurek chains, that is, 
between 55 and 65 degrees of north latitude ; for it was through 
the passes, at the head waters of the river Vitim, that it appears 
the Mongols first pushed their conquests forward among the 
Yuchi, then in possession of the southern borders of Lake 
Baikal, and the Mandshures subjugated the Shagallian terri- 
tory, washed by the great Shika or river Amour, where the 
ruins of most ancient cities, captured and abandoned by 
the beardless stock, are still to be seen. Desolate cities, with 
standing gateways, in a great degree perfect, and monstrous 
statues, akin to, but far more elaborate than the more early 
Scandinavian and Gothic works of art in Europe, indicate no 
very remote period when they were forsaken, and testify that 
the religion once predominant had more affinity with the 
northern Caucasian doctrines of the west, than with the 
Budhism, Shamanism, or any other superstitions known 
among the beardless nations.^ 

Having before shown the opinion, drawn from high authori- 
ties, and corroborated by Chinese annals, that while the Polar 
Sea covered, to within recent ages, several degrees of latitude 
in northern Asia, the climate must have been considerably 
milder than at present, and consequently have facilitated 
migration to the eastward, even if Behring's Straits had then 
already its present dimensions, and the Aleutian islands did not 
form a more continuous chain than they now exhibit. These 
circumstances may account both for the Caucaso-Mongolic 
propulsion to America, and for the comparatively late period 

* Par-liotan, city of the Tiger, a mass of extensive ruins, on the Kirton- 
Gura of the Kalkas, and to the north of Mongolia. The Kirton-Gura 
communicates with the Amour by the Kulon-nor lake. The ruins are in 
latitude 48, and in longitude a little west of Pekin. Though not built by 
the Mongolic nations, this and other cities were no doubt occupied by 
them till after their conquest of China, when to permit another hardy 
population to grow up concentrated in the north was no doubt found to 
be unadvisable. 

24=^ 



282 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

of development which that stock displays towards the south 
and west. 

The earliest Chinese annals may not in reality belong to the 
beardless races, but be an appropriation made by them after 
their first conquests were effected ; for the Chinese heroes and 
social institutions, including Foh himself, have, in their human 
relations, characters that do not belong so much to them as to 
their predecessors, the Kinto Moey, or Yuchi. They have 
also usages, like the feast of lanterns, which have no proper 
meaning in their legends, though, like the Hoolee of India in 
substance, they may be regarded as the same, since they are 
both dedicated to the opening spring. It is doubtful whether 
at Canton the votaries of Budha understand the hymns sung by 
them in his praise ; for they are obtained from Ceylon, though 
the religious system itself is derived originally from Thibet, or 
perhaps, with still more certainty, from the more western 
portion of High Asia, before the Hyperborean diffusion reached 
that quarter. 

The beardless stock, in its primaeval abode, may not have 
attained the full stature of Caucasians. Migration to more 
southerly regions, still more, innervation derived from inter- 
union with bearded races, probably gave it the development 
now attained ; for no giant tribes are recorded among the 
unadulterated nations of Mongolic origin; and many instances 
occur, where, like Anna Comnena, speaking of the first 
appearance of the Turks, they are described to be of small 
stature. Here, like in other cases, it should be borne in 
mind that the ruling tribes and royal clans, the greatest 
sharers in the division of spoil, possessed the principal propor- 
tion of Caucasian captive females, and thence acquired an 
external superiority of aspect, as well as much greater cerebral 
expansion. This fact is forcibly shown in the Osmanli and 
Toorkee dynasties of Europe and Persia. Mythology and 
romance notice dwarfs and Pypilikas, or gold-finding ants (pos- 
sibly a mode of describing the gold miners of the Altaic range), 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 283 

Tschutski, Jakoutski, or others, not perhaps pure Hyperbo- 
reans, such as the iron-working Niron tribes of Mongolia 
appropriately typified by griffins and dragons, since these very 
monsters have been their national ensigns from the remotest 
ages ; and at several times conquerors have issued from among 
them, desolating the earth, and forming the greatest as well 
as the most transient empires in human history.^ 

Whether the Phryni and Seres of antiquity, mentioned by 
Pliny, Strabo, and Ptolemy, were really of the beardless stock 
in possession of Kashgar and Yarkund, and associated with 
the Tokhari as early as the Macedonian conquest, may well 
be contested, since the conjecture of Dr. Vincent, that for 
Scythiae should be read Sindh, is proved to be incorrect. The 
southern glens of that region, being the spontaneous land of the 
mulberry tree, had then, no doubt, their own different species 
of indigenous silk-worms, which they still possess, and from 
their produce the name Serica was derived, as well as Seres, 
without reference to the origin of the nation that then had 
rule. There can be little doubt but that they were Caucasian 
Scythians of remote times, since the name of the Tokhari has 
been read phonetically among the vanquished tribes repre- 
sented on Egyptian temples, where the conquests of a Thoth- 
mes or Remses are depicted, and the population of those high 
lands is not even now Mongolic. What the earlier Greeks 
related of the Seres, who were reported to be satyrs, eighteen 
cubits in height, sufficiently proves they knew the name only 
in connection with some colossal statues of Indian or of Bac- 
trian divinities. 

The Chinese, in their earliest records, seem to denominate 
the whole beardless stock Le Min, or black-haired people, 
according to the old classical comment on the Yaou Tan, in 
order to distinguish them from the foreign races, which are 
designated as invariably red or fair-haired ; that is, Yuchi. 

*Such as Ogus Khan, about 657 B. C, to Genghiz Khan, about 1154 
A. D. 



284 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

The Mongolic type is, in truth, unknown to ancient history 
in the shape of organized nations ; but isolated tribes have pen- 
etrated westward at early periods, more or less mixed up with • 
that subtypical stock which formed the Finnic or Ouralian 
nations, whose presence in Europe we shall shortly mention. 
Those among them which are least mixed by Caucasian inter- 
union, certainly still retain the characteristics evidently belong- 
ing to the most pure and ancient Hyperborean beardless tribes ; 
still the following description is applicable to both, with only 
so much difference as the conditions of their respective situa- 
tions admit to be results of circumstances only. 

The Beardless Hyperborean, "^ or Mongolic type, differs 
from the white Caucasian and Melanic stocks, by constant 
characters, which mark it externally, even where the subordinate 
stems are greatly adulterated by intermixture, or modified by 
climate and other causes. It is a form of Man distinguished 
from the other two types by a facial angle, sloping backwards 
from 70 to 80 degrees — the contents of the cerebral chamber 
varying, according to Dr. Morton's measurement, from 69 to 
93 cubic inches ; the head is rather small, the face flat, the 
cheek-bones projecting laterally, the eyes small, not much 
opened, appearing to be placed obliquely, with the external 
angle upwards, chiefly because the lachrymary gland is con- 
cealed by the upper lid, which turns directly down over it. 
This IS a provision of nature common to the ruminants of high 
latitudes, and the most elevated ridges, who are all destitute 
of tear pits, probably because the lachrymary structure cannot 
be exposed in a rigorous climate without positive detriment to 
the eyes. The Mongolian eye has always a dark iris, the 
eyebrows are narrow, the hair is coarse, lank, and black, the 
beard scanty, not curly, partially or wholly wanting at the 

* The denomination of hyperborean is more strictly applicable to the 
Arctic stock, though by the ancients the same designation is commonly 
believed to refer to Gothic, or at most to Finnic tribes, who were at that 
time merely boreal, or northern inhabitants. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES* ' 285 

ears, and it appears to be of the same pile as the hair of the 
head. The nose is small, somewhat pointed, and the mouth 
well-formed. In the Nogai race the nose is, however, round, 
flattened, and dilated, the cheek-bones still more prominent, 
the lips are tumid, and the eyes almost reduced to linear open- 
ings ; while the black Kalmucks have the obliquity of the lids 
still greater, so that their external angles seem to be almost 
forty-five degrees above horizontal. All the true beardless 
nations are olivaceous in color, the skin varying from a 
kind of sallow lemon-peel, through various shades of greater 
depth ; but it is never entirely fair, nor intensely swarthy ; 
although, in the adulterated races that occupy the Himalaya 
range, slight appearances of blush may be discerned among 
young people ; and the black Kalmucks, from some other unex- 
plained cause, are of an ashy darkness, not far remote from the 
true Papua color. The typical nations are all square of body, 
in stature rather low, the trunk long, the extremities seldom or 
never lengthened, and the wrists and ankles are weak.=^ 

These characteristics of the Hyperborean type retain such 
uniformity, that the American races are in most particulars, as 
we have already shown, but little aberrant, and the Malay, 
Indo-Chinese, &c., continue to bear them, in the exact propor- 
tion of their commixture with other aberrants, and of the influ- 
ences generated by local circumstances. In the same ratio we 
also find the physical structure to harmonize with the intellec- 
tual qualities. The Hyperborean evinces a feebler innervation 
than the other typical forms of Man ; he is less under amatory 
influences, less prolific, less enduring in toil ; hence more dis- 

* Where the gland is visible, the eye horizontal, and the beard spreads 
up to the sides of the ears, there is certainly a mixed descent. It is most 
common, perhaps solely observed, among natives of the northern prov- 
inces beyond the wall. No doubt the superior energy and capacity they 
evince is the cause why they are everywhere in office, and that so many 
portraits, thus characterized, occur in the Chinese Museum now exhibit- 
ing in London. 



286 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

posed to severity where he has power ; to a victim or a captive 
inflicting needless torture, less from natural ferocity, than from 
the want of individual self-reliance, which is thus prone to 
express fear by precaution. More readily reduced to order 
when subdued, he evades rather than resists oppression by 
force; he is more obstinate than brave, but savage to self- 
destruction when roused by despair ; avoiding personal exer- 
tion, such as to walk or to dig unremittingly in the fields, he 
rides in every region when the Horse is accessible ; more imita- 
tive than inventive, he exerts his ingenuity to apply mechani- 
cal aids in necessary labors. Sitting at work, he is dexterous, 
but little tasteful; at handicraft professions, preferring patient 
elaboration to exertion ; lazy, yet gluttonous, omnivorous with 
scarcely any distinction; filthy, amounting to a dread of 
water; crafty, dishonest, plausible; in war he trusts to his 
horse, or to numbers ; he finds sudden irruption, cruelty, plun- 
der, and desolation, more congenial than open battle and 
victory. 

With the mind more vacant than contemplative, the relig- 
ious sentiment, that source of all exalted and practical feeling, 
has never risen above an indistinct idea of a Supreme Being, 
a heaven, or a solar worship ; it is better satisfied with the true 
northern impostures of Shamanism, and with the borrowed 
demon worship engrafted on Budhistic doctrines; for what is 
of true moral tendency, either in the ethics of Foh or Budh, is 
of foreign origin, and repugnant to the intellectual puerilities 
which are his substitutes for reason, philosophy, and science. 
A deified, ancestral, and paternal obedience stands in lieu 
of practical religion — his only support of that innate moral 
feeling belonging to all human beings. It is the key-stone of 
absolute power in jhe state ; hence coercion is the civilization 
of the masses, ceremonious punctiliousness that of their supe- 
riors, ignorant self-laudation the acquirement of literati, and 
insolence the portion of all. The discoveries they possess in 
physics are the rasults of chance ; all the maxims of state are 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 287 

immutable, and repressive of progress. Though early in pos- 
session of the mariner's compass, and (particularly the Japan- 
ese) long compelled to a familiarity with the sea, none of the 
beardless tribes ever became true navigators, or reasoning ship- 
builders. 

The typical nations have monosyllabic languages, depending 
greatly upon phonetic expression, and their letters are pictorial 
symbols, immensely diversified ; hence their so-called poetical 
compositions cannot be highly figurative, or reach beyond 
mediocrity, and their learning is greatly restricted by the 
cumbrousness of its elements. Finally, what is known of 
social advancement, of inductive reasoning, or" of mathematical 
acquirement, is derived from foreign sources, or is the work of 
interunions with the various Caucasian races, Yuchi, Kin-to- 
Moey, Hindo-Chinese, and others, scattered through every part 
of the organized nations of the beardless stock. 

It appears that the present Mongolic tribes were long 
ignorant of the real use of the Horse; while, in the arctic 
regions, the white woolly race of the Jakoutsk was not deemed 
serviceable, except for food. 

From the Subaltaic Yuchi, who were the first rulers, they 
no doubt learnt the art, and became conquerors, by the sole 
acquisition which changes the relations of every people on 
earth accessible to the animal."^ 

This was certainly subsequent to the oldest Hyperborean 
invasion of China ; for, even to this day, that immense region 
produces very inferior animals, excepting those bred by the 
Caucasian Miao-tze mountaineers. 

Yet, under favorable circumstances, and no doubt with 
some aid from the Caucasian elements spread through the 
masses, they have achieved an homogeneous civilization, as 
early, perhaps earlier, than any people of the south and west; 

* The Mongolic nations eat horse-flesh. Wild horse-meat, butchered 
for the market, is still sold daily in many parts of China. 



288 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

and though the reflective powers confer but feeble modes of 
reasoning-, and often false conclusions, a sort of erratic common 
sense has caused them to alight upon moral truths and humane 
sentiments, which the most polished nations of Europe acknowl- 
edge, but scarcely put in practice. With the conditions of 
existence here shown, it is evident that a people, such as the 
Chinese in particular, according to their own annals, while re- 
siding in the southern flanks of the Khinghan mountains, would 
multiply in time, till want of subsistence compelled the masses 
to industry, and that, unwarlike and sedentary in the plains, 
they would fall beneath the energy of kindred tribes, coming 
upon their horses from the bleak north, to commit devastation, 
grasp the empire, enslave by mandates, and by an enormous 
police, till vanquished by the enervating process of the system, 
these too would fall in turn beneath a new horde of invaders. 
There were unquestionably more than the two well-known 
conquests of China, since the empire included the more 
ancient separate sovereignties ; and though the fate of rude 
conquerors over more civilized nations of homogeneous origin, 
is ever to become, in civil administration, the pupils of the 
vanquished, the new dominion debases both. 

These events are clearly shown in early ages, where the 
conquering hordes on the plateau of Thibet come up, or are 
first observed stationed on the south-east, as if they emanated 
from China; and they speak of great empires, formed in 
remote ages, among which that of Orgus or Oloug Khan the 
Great, who flourished, it is said, about 657 B. C, should be 
mentioned, if indeed his exploits belong to a Mongolic or 
beardless people ; for he resided in winter near the Sir-Deriah, 
or Jaxartes, centuries before the Geta and Sakia Caucasians 
came westward by this and the Oxus rivers. 

Japan, divided into islands, in part possessed by tribes not 
typical, but of anomalous origin, with a colder stormy climate 
and soil, often disturbed by the most terrible earthquakes, 
presents a more energetic population, which, being free from 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 289 

foreign wars, is ever ready to break out in sanguinary rebellion, 
not a little fostered by the jealous timidity of the ruling 
powers. 

On the south of the Chinese empire, vast woody mountain 
ranges and abundant rivers constitute wildernesses of vegeta- 
tion, thinly inhabited by nations forming several kingdoms, 
with an interior but little known. The Mongolic stock is most 
numerous on the north-east, the Caucasian type on the west, 
and in the interior and the Malay peninsula the Papua popula- 
tion still lingers. Power is in the hands of the first; the 
denomination of geographical localities the patrimony of the 
second ; and the third has undoubtedly intermixed and adulter- 
ated the blood of both. 

By these facts we detect the successive occupiers ; — the 
Hindoo races invading the aborigines long before they were in 
turn made subjects of the beardless conquerors. This process, 
we have already shown, has extended onwards through the 
Australian and Polynesian islands, with an additional element 
of an Arabian, and, later still, of an European amalgamation. 

On the north of China, whence the civilized and sedentary 
southern people have originally emanated, we find the nomad 
nations still tending their herds ; consequently, these are the 
real typical Hyperboreans, and, accordingly, they possess the 
distinctive characters belonging to their origin, in the maxi- 
mum of development; — the Manchures, or Tungusian stem, 
Mongols, Bashkirs, Kalmucks, Kirguise, Nogai, Usbeks; Tur- 
comans being more mixed; and all, in general, misnamed 
Tahtars, for that term designates, originally, a mere tribe of 
vanquished inhabitants, who were made tributaries by the 
earlier Mongolian invaders, on the south of Lake Baikal ; and 
in process of time it was extended to other nations of depend- 
ent states further to the west. The Mongols and Manchures, 
in graduated proportions, are, at present, the stall-fed masters 
of China, and nearly form the whole real military force of the 
empire, consisting entirely of cavalry, probably less than 
, 25 



290 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

250,000 strong, covering the inert mass of 300,000,000 subjects, 
with the aid of 800,000 policemen, denominated infantry, and 
an enormous crowd of civilians and satellites, all intended for 
internal rule, and incapable of external vigor. 

They are, to all appearance, the first who came from the 
remote north-east, after the Japanese and Chinese. Of the 
Turkish stems, some have acquired a Caucasian form of head, 
such as the Osmanlis and the so-called Kussian Tahtars, resid- 
ing in towns ; but the nomadic tribes, the Nogais, Kirguise, 
Turkoman, and Jakoutsk, retain the original structure of the 
Mongolian form, while the Turks further betray their hybrid 
character by the number of Sanscrit words found in the lan- 
guage they speak, which, since they were not among the 
ancient invaders of India, must have been incorporated on the 
north side of the great central mountain systems of Asia, and, 
consequently, from a Caucasian people, whose tongue was a 
dialect of this great language, proving that it had a national 
existence much further to the north than is commonly sur- 
mised. The name Turks, Toorkees, may designate mountain 
men, for it agrees with their earliest history, as given m the 
Chinese annals, according to Klaproth, Abel Kemusat, and 
others, who assert that they descend from the Hiong-nou, a 
people whose capital was Kantcheou, in Tangut, and that they 
came down the snowy passes of Tang-nu and the great Altai, 
upon the west, probably by the upper Irtish and the affluents 
of the Jaxartes. The same annals, however, pretend that 
they were seated on the northern flanks of the mountain 
ranges, which may refer to their remoter habitation on the 
Irtish, but not near the Shensi and Shansi provinces, unless it 
was after the Yuchi nations were ejected ; for these were still 
opposed to the Mongols, in those very regions ; and the abun- 
dance of local names now remaining in Thibet shows that Cau- 
casians occupied a great portion of the high land plateau to a 
late period. It must have taken ages to dislodge tribes, which 
we find in subsequent periods making a prodigious resistance ; 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 291 

and therefore the progress from the high declivities of the Mon- 
golian steppes, which they appear to have held at an early 
time, to their occupation of the Thian-Shan mountains, may 
be admitted to come within two or three centuries before the 
Christian era, because Kanishka, a Caucasian (Sakia) prince, 
came down and conquered Bactria, only in 120 B. C. It is, 
therefore, probable that their most ancient name of Hoei-yu 
was changed to Hiong-nou, a century or two later, when the 
Caucasian intermixture gave rise to dissension, and their 
power was broken by civil wars and Chinese dexterity. 
Though circumstances and dates in Chinese records should 
not be held more credible than our own western documents of 
remote antiquity, they still deserve general belief in the char- 
acter of the events they narrate. Here their course is perfectly 
natural ; and from other sources will be shown, in the sequel, 
that this general character is fully sustained in the later ages 
here mentioned. 

The percussions then given to the nations of central High 
Asia appear further to be depicted in the figurative, or per- 
haps physically true legend, that in the fifth century of our 
era the Oxus and Jaxartes dried up for seven years, and the 
populations resident on their banks were forced to emigrate for 
want of water. The period is coincident with that vast con- 
vulsion when the Hunnic empire suddenly expanded from the 
frontiers of China to the mouth of the Rhine ; and though not 
entirely, perhaps not even chiefly, composed of Mongolian 
hordes, as we shall presently show, it certainly embraced, beside 
Toorkees, vast legions of Kalmucks, Kirguise, and Bashkirs, 
who, in the career of victory, under Attila, spread, till, in the 
subsequent dissolution of that power, they could never again 
reunite to preserve independence; for when, at a later date, 
fresh waves, entirely composed of the Hyperborean stock, swept 
them again, in the career of desolation, to the west, Nogais, 
Usbeks, and Kalmucks, still more dislocated, settled further on 
to the Crimea, from whence, however, the forgot Kalmucks^ by 



292 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

a noble effort to retain their nationality, suddenly departed, in 
the last century, and, retracing the steps of their ancestors, 
moved eastward in a vast column, fighting their way through 
all opposition, till they reached the Chinese frontier in safety. 
The western direction of the Hyperborean conquests was 
more particularly marked in the reign of Genghiz Khan, in 
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries ; of Timur Leng, in the 
fourteenth ; and Nadir Shah, in the seventeenth ; during which 
period, or, rather, from the time of Boleslas the Chaste (1227), 
to that of Stanislaus Augustus, a Polish writer enumerates, 
with some exaggeration, not less than ninety-one invasions of 
Poland coming from the east. Strange, however, as it may 
appear, none of the foregoing conquerors were themselves 
pure Mongols, but by connection they all possessed a portion of 
Caucasian blood, through Finnic, Yuchi, or Turkish alliances. 
On the north side of the great wall of China, the terms 
Kuthais and Kara Kuthais are not clearly designated ; they 
may apply generally to the Mongolic residents, though it is 
evident that the last mentioned refers to a dark race, perhaps 
the swarthy Kalmucks. It was from this region that Genghiz 
Khan and his clan first commenced their conquests, which, in 
Octai's reign, were divided into several dominions.^ It is, 

* These conquerors all sprung, directly or indirectly, from the Niron 
Cayut, chief family of the Niron tribe of iron miners, smelters, and forg- 
ing smiths, or Arkenikom, residing in the sacred district of Kobdo, north- 
east of Irmingtan Peak, part of Altain Niro, situated on the edge of the 
Shamoo, or Gobi desert, and not far west from Karakorum, once the 
capital of Genghiz Khan. From this point the waters flow, by the river 
Selinga, into Lake Baikal, and thence, finally, by the Yenisei, into the 
Polar Sea. It was here Pisouka Bahauder, eighth in descent from a child 
of light (Nourayon), laid the foundation of the empire which Genghiz 
formed. But it must be remarked that the ancestral names of the family 
do not indicate so much a Mongolic as a Caucasian Finnic origin. Proba- 
bly the mining mountaineers were still of the Yuchi stock, and, as usual 
elsewhere, soon became the master tribe over the invaders. In these 
mountains are probably the oldest mines in the world. Here the Pipili- 
cas (gold-finding ants), of Hindoo lore, may have been Hyperborean Fins 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 293 

however, a remarkable circumstance, that, excepting in the 
ruling families, the unceasing importations of Caucasian female 
slaves, victims of inroads, which for a succession of ages swept 
the populations of Southern Asia, and the whole of North- 
western Europe, independent of similar devastations perpe- 
trated by Mongolic nations, at still earlier periods, over the 
Yuchi and other Oriental Asiatics, the Caucasian stock should 
have left such scanty outward evidence in the masses of the 
conquerors. The lower innervation, and consequent deadly 
apathy, in the relations of humanity, alone can account for it. 
Small as the influence may be in other respects, it has, never- 
theless, tended to produce, on the north of the great wall of 
China, a Caucasian ratiocination, which the Kara-kuthai, and 
all Tab tars evince, in the Islam religious expansion. 

Batu Khan, nephew of Genghiz, formed, about 1223, the 
celebrated Golden horde in Kiptchack, a state between the 
Don, Volga, and Yaik, where, with the habits of various races 
of mixed and true Caucasians, an immense caravan trade was 
created, and extended to Samarkand and China on the one 
side, and on the other came to Astrakan, and thence, by the 
Volga, to Cazan and the Baltic, or by the Don to Azoff*, or, 
lastly, by the Kur and Rion, reached the post where the 
Genoese had revived the trade of ancient Colchis, — a wise 
and industrial system, which, while it lasted, conferred such 
riches on the government and people, that the resplendent 
name above noted was the consequence. But that the evident 
advantages of a peaceful policy could not wholly restrain the 
habits of rapine, is evident; for it was at this period, 1237, 
1241, that Batu, with the Kiptchack or Komans, and Petah 
Khhn, with the Telebog and Nogai swarms, made those great 
inroads upon eastern Europe which nearl}^ depopulated Russia, 
Poland, Hungary, and adjacent provinces. But the successes 

(the Bergmen and dwarfs of every legend), and their dragon guardians 
Caucasian Fins, such as the Niron, who seem at all times to have recog- 
nized a dragon for their national standard. 

25=^ 



294 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

of SO many ages at length appear to have blunted the restless 
characters of the Mongolic stock, and their habits became 
stationary. Pastoral nations, though often conquerors, ever 
finish by receding before the steady progress of energetic culti- 
vators. It is exemplified, in this case, by the gradual reaction 
•which sends the Caucasian eastward, to recover the debatable 
ground. After 1800 years of conflict, he has already regained 
a great portion of the original seat of the Hyperborean type. 

Russia has subdued several nations who have little or no 
history ; among others, some of real Mongolic descent, and the 
Sogha, or Yakutsk, of all men the most hardy, together with 
the lofty Tschutski, of pretended American origin, but neither 
appearing to be true Mongols. An important consideration 
afTects the condition of these arctic nations of Asia, namely, 
the fast decrease of the Reindeer, both domestic and wild, 
threatening, at no distant period, to reduce the already miserable 
existence of the people to starvation, where no migration 
towards the south can offer to improve their lot. The cause 
of this privation of almost the only source of comfort, in those 
dreary regions, is not yet fully explained, although several 
tribes are already totally destitute of their domestic flocks. It 
may be here, as in North America, that some law in nature is 
operating, in combination with the progress of civilized nations, 
to change the character of the high north, and leave it a desert, 
with scarcely a human tribe able to subsist on it ; indeed, the 
only people must, ultimately, be Samoyed, Esquimaux, and 
Lapland fish-eating Hyperboreans ; the sole remaining race of 
the beardless stock to which we have space to refer. 

This people, in both continents, being ever greatly restricted 
in food, either at no time acquired the full stature of the type, 
or it still retains the original appearance, from which the 
nations in better circumstances have passed to more ample 
structures. Though diminutive, they possess all the character- 
istics of the Mongolic form, so far as they remain unmixed ; 
but in several instances they have formed unions with the 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 295 

nearest ejected Caucasian tribes in Eastern Asia, and also, in 
extending along the arctic shores to the west. By means of 
their snow skates, their Keindeer, and their seal-skin coracles, 
they found means to traverse a great space in less time than 
other migrators ; to cross over ice in winter; to pass the Asiatic 
Mediterranean, which, at that period, may not, as yet, have 
been totally absorbed; or to cross Behring's Strait, which, how- 
ever, they do not seem to have accomplished until ages had 
elapsed. In this manner, they came early in contact and com- 
mixture with Caucasians, such as the western Yeta tribes, on 
the shores of the sea, or those they may have found to the west 
of it, about the Ouralian mountains, and formed the Finnic 
subtypical stem, on one side, and the Tschudic on the other. 
Both these suppositions are strengthened by the appearance of 
Finnic words in the Mexican language, and by a similar occur- 
rence in the Basque dialect of the Pyrenees, while, on the 
plains of the north-west, other facts show how near an intimacy 
was established between the ancient Swedes and the Huns, 
and between these and the Magyars, who were kindred of the 
Turks. 

While this stem of the Mongolic type is thus shown to have 
spread at a remote period, and to have been mixed in the more 
temperate climates of the old continent, it is, in a pure state, 
evidently less ancient than the other populations of America ; 
for it has only been permitted to dwell in regions never occu- 
pied, or totally forsaken by them, — that is, the Polar and 
north-west coast ; and as they were thus not wanted to assist 
the necessities of anterior colonists, they have continued to be 
regarded as enemies, being still unmercifully slaughtered by 
the stern Indian, on all occasions where he can glut his passion 
for bloodshed, under the pretext that all the Esquimaux are 
sorcerers. 



296 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



THE FINNIC, OURALIAN, OR TSCHUDIC SUBTYPICAL STEM, 

Appears to have arisen from an interunion of the two great 
typical forms of the north ; for its characteristics become prom- 
inent in proportion as the respective alliance with one or the 
other is predominant; thus, while the Skrict-Finn or Lap- 
lander, nearly of pure Hyperborean blood, verges in the same 
degree to the Mongole stock, the Finlander is in structure 
entirely a Caucasian, though both speak dialects of the same 
language — here, as elsewhere, showing the ready predom- 
inance of the Caucasian blood. All the nations of this stem 
have considerable flexibility of voice, and consequently a great 
facility in acquiring the languages of their neighbors and of 
strangers ; and hence the Sclavonic and Teutonic dialects have 
swept away tbe Finnic in all places where the resident tribes 
were not isolated by the nature of their country. In Asia the 
Tschutski are of similar origin as the more western Finns,^ 
and seem to represent the parent stock whence several nations 
of America take their source, while they are claimed as the most 
ancient miners of the Altai ; a character which again recurs 
among their kindred of the west. Industrious from necessity, 
the scattered, less warlike tribes, with that Mongolic tact for 
applying artificial aids in their labor, early found walrus teeth 
sufficient to separate portions of meteoric iron or aerolite, 
anciently more often found in large masses than at present ; 
with the aid of stones they learnt to hammer it into tools, and 

* Tschutski and Finn are convertible terms in Northern Russia. 
Tschudi is the Russian name of Finland, and the true appellation of the 
ancient Scythians. Joten were the giant families, or Gothic Finns of the 
Germans. There is still a tribe of Tusci remaining among the inhabit- 
ants of Circassia; and ifRauwolf be correct, the Druses of Libanus were 
called Trusci. This indicates a portion of the Finnic race to have moved, 
at a remote age, through Asia Minor towards Syria, and it may thus have 
formed one of the early constituents of the Imilicon of Palestine. From the 
Altaic gold mines to the west they were in all places troglodytes and 
miners. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 29t 

subsequently into the celebrated swords of the ancient north. 
Horns of the Elk, and antlers of Reindeer, made ready shovels 
and pickaxes ; and having already a knowledge of meteoric 
metal, they soon found, that by digging, ores might be brought 
up from beneath the surface.^ 

The zone of earth given them as a patrimony being inter- 
sected at right angles by many enormous rivers — by the Ice- 
land or German Sea — by the White Sea — by the still re- 
maining portions of the Asiatic Mediterranean — by Behring's 
Straits — and unceasing winters causing many sufferings to 
migrators on the east and west, they, like all other men, must 
have desired to wander to more genial and passable regions ; 
and accordingly, nations arising from this branch of the Mon- 
golic stock, gradually more and more mixed with Caucasians, 
can be traced southward, down to the great central range of 
mountains, where they were met by the opposite commixture 
of swarthy races, while the purest typical form of the bearded 
type clung to the line of mountain prolongation, or occupied 
parallels along it to the western extremity of Europe. The 
commixture of two typical races, as before observed, is often 
productive of larger growth among individuals, especially 
if the northern Caucasian predominate. On the edge where 
they encountered the Hyperborean, they mixed with it, perhaps 
alternately as subjects or captives, and as masters, until both 
were pressed by others, again subdued, or driven forward to 
other regions. Several of these, and other nations hereafter 
noticed, can be traced back to the Cclchian sea-ports, to the 
shores of the Meotic estuary and Tauric Chersonesus, where 
materials for navigating the great rivers of Scythia first im- 
proved their experience to dare the more open sea of the Eux- 
ine, ascend the Danube, or pass through the Bosphorus into the 

* We find them tenants of Southern Siberia, up to the vicinity of the 
Jenissei about Krasnojarsk, where Pallas discovered an iron mine still 
retaining stone hammers and brass tools, ascribed by the present Tahtars 
to the Tschutski. 



298 . NATURAL HISTORY OF 

^gean, and ultimately to become intrepid seamen. Though 
they possessed some industrial knowledge, destitution, famine, 
or other causes, made them fierce savages, often positive can- 
nibals. Such, it is likely, were the Cyclopeans, Lestrigons, 
Sicanes, and Siculian swarms, which long terrified the more 
southern Asiatic emigrants on the shores of the Mediterranean. 
But before the historical era, they were already followed by 
others (the mining and forging Idsei Dactyli?) and blended 
with the first Gomerian people that came westward, and 
together with them, finally merged into various Celtic tribes of 
Italy, Gaul, and Spain, and occupied the north coast of the 
Adriatic, where, notwithstanding the character they bear with 
posterity, they were advancing in the arts of civilization. 

Others of a still greater Scythic innervation, it may be 
inferred, penetrated by the passes on both shores, along the 
western Caucasian chain, and crossing the ridges of Armenia 
Minor, came upon the Upper Euphrates, skirted the eastern 
flanks of Ammanus, till they reached the Syrian coast ; or, 
continuing to descend the banks of the great river, formed a 
portion of that Scythic element which is constantly traced in 
the Hebrew historical records, and repeatedly noticed in the 
heroic age of Arabian traditions. 

In this way they constituted the chief source of that red- 
haired people which is still found in the mountains of Pales- 
tine, and is known as the Montefict Arab, and probably formed 
the first or primitive Phcenician pirates and traders. A tribe 
of this people was extant on the Euphrates, under the name of 
Rhustumi; others occupied the Arabian islands; and if all 
the earliest Scythian tribes were of the same mixed origin, they 
were the invaders who ruled in Egypt by the names of Hyksos 
and shepherds; the same who were the cause why red-haired "^ 

* The quality of red hair belongs exclusively to northern Asia and Eu- 
rope ; beside the Northmen and their descendants, it is still almost wholly 
national amonj several mixed tribes of northern Russia. If Assyria once 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 299 

men, and even rufous oxen, were sacrificed, after their expul- 
sion, in detestation of their dominion. They may have been 
the parent stock of the Beni Koreish, since the Seyads, who in 
Asia still pride themselves as descendants of the prophet, stain 
their beards to a red color; and, finally, clans are likewise still 
found scattered inland of the northern African shores, where 
they are taken to be remnants of the Vandals, who were 
indeed a branch of the same stem that came round by the west 
end of the Mediterranean. 

Finnic Scythae, Eauwolf's Trusci, may have passed to Abys- 
sinia with the first Arabian tribes, and influenced the building 
of cities of wolf priests, such as was the capital city Tegulet ; 
for who but a people of northern origin would have thought of 
wolf gods and lupine priests, particularly in Africa, where no 
true wolf is as yet proved to exist? for the Ounce of Egyptian 
Sycopolis, Siout of the Praenestine Mosaic, surely cannot be 
the insignificant Chakal or Canis Anthus."^ 

We have omitted to notice another characteristic that marks 
the primaeval Finnic tribes, namely, their dwellings, which 
once were in Europe similar to those of the present Tschutski 
of Eastern Asia, and of the North American Indians of the 
same stock. They are figured in Catlin's Travels, and still 

was held by red-haired men, they most assuredly originated from people 
beyond the Caspian. 

* This worship Avas well known in the south of Europe, where northern 
tribes had penetrated. Finns, Etruscans, or Pelasgians, most likely 
instituted the Hirpi, wolf priests, at Soracte, the Luperci at Rome, the 
most ancient sacerdotal order in the city. Such, again, were the priests 
of Latona at Delphi. They existed at Thebes in Egypt, and were in all 
cases funereal ministers. They had, it is probable, mysteries which were 
the origin of the power to assume any shape, ascribed to the Budas or 
blacksmiths of Abyssinia, to the Wehrwolf in Europe and Asia, the 
Escolar of Portugal, and of Bassa Jaon, the mysterious smith of the 
Basques, the Crewe, Blotmen, sacrificial priests of the northern nations, 
who slew human victims ; the medicine men, exercisers of North Amer- 
ica, the Shamans of Asia, and even the Druid victimizers, wore wolf-skin 
dresses, or at least girdles of that material. 



300 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

more correctly in those of Prince Maximilian of Wied. In the 
west they were named Dan, Den, Tan, Ton, &c., denomina- 
tions preserved in Denmark ; Danes Tannieres in Belgium ; 
Tonningen in North Germany. They exist now in Lapland, 
and among the Samoyeds ; are the origin of the legends of 
the Bergmen, burrowing men, where the forging Alfen dwelt, 
who were miners and sword smiths in Asia, Scandinavia, and 
Germany, including Carinthia, long the legendary dwelling of 
Laurin, brother of the Norwegian Alperich, and the Asiatic 
Sinnel, princes of a dwarfish people. Even the garden of 
roses, the mysterious retreat, where the dwarf king, with his 
subterranean powers, was vanquished by Dietrich of Bern, 
the Gothic hero, might perhaps be pointed out in the won- 
derful cavern of Adelsberg,"^ with its mysterious river, not 
far from various mines, and particularly that of quicksilver, 
about Idria. 

Having been checked in a western progress, perhaps by the 
still remaining salt marshes, already interspersed with barren 
sea sands, in north-western Asia, the Scythic Finns accumu- 
lated and grew to nations of variously mixed character, not un- 
like those already noticed in south-western Asia and Egypt ; 
but it was ages later before they developed, and pushed on by 
Lake Ladoga to the Baltic. Here, propelling the true Hyper- 
boreans, they became Finn-laps, and next, the earlier Scandi- 
navian inhabitants, at the same time that they formed also the 
Esthonian, Biarmian, Prussian, and other maritime people. On 
all these coasts, a certain affinity with, or pressure by, new 

* This is close by the elevated Schneeberg. The Laybach is twice 
lost in the earth, and again reappears. The Zirknitz Lake, supplied by 
subterranean torrents, suddenly becomes empty, and as rapidly fills again ; 
where also the mysterious Proteus Anfftdniis comes up from reservoirs of 
everlasting night. The cavern, twelve miles in length, is adorned with 
stalactites, forming halls, corridors, recesses, pillars, obelisks, hangings, 
and even forms of animals, so strangely commixed, and of such enormous 
proportions, that here the powers of enchantment were naturally believed 
to have held their court. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 301 

hordes of colonists possessed of Gomerian blood, or at least of 
Celto-ScytKic traditions and practices, is indicated. It forms 
the Celtic element in their composition ; and from this source 
they acquired, together with a portion of their dialects, those 
habits of forming circles of stones and cromlechs, which are 
still abundant in Norway, in some parts of north-western Ger- 
many, and Friesland. They possessed traditions originating 
in the north as well as south of High Asia ; legends that recur 
again in the Celtic Basque provinces, and even in western 
America. 

The small clans, ruled by a patriarchal or family system, 
which the earliest documents of the Celtic colonists in Britain ac- 
knowledge to have found on the soil, and whose smoky cavern 
dwellings may be traced perhaps near Brixham, on the shores 
of Torbay, must be referred to that sub-type of the human race ; 
for not being of the Celtic stock, they could not well be of other 
than of Finnic origin. In the generally scattered diffusion of 
residence, having abundant supplies of food from the sea, the 
lakes, rivers, and forests, small clans, with afhnities in dialects, 
creeds, and consanguinity, could not find many motives for 
hostility. Those savage wars of extermination, rising out of 
ambition, or for the possession of favorite localities, most likely 
did not occur until greater pressure of new colonies, vastly 
augmented populations, increasing cultivation and wealth, 
roused cupidity and the spirit of dominion ; for, otherwise, the 
sudden march of whole nations could not subsequently have 
taken place unmolested by neighbors ; such, for instance, as 
the Gallic, down the Danube, to Greece and Asia Minor ; the 
Boian, north-eastward to Bohemia; or the Cymber, from the 
coasts of the German Ocean to Italy. 

In the east of Europe we find a myrmidon people, again, 
no doubt, burrowing ants, like the gold-finding miners of 
High Asia, with Thessalian Larissa, subject to the Thraco- 
Pelasgian Achilles. Moreover, we find the Helotes, and other 
indigenous tribes reduced to slavery by conquering Heleni, 
26 



302 NATURAL HISTORY OP 

who themselves acknowledged gods of high northern origin, and 
venerated milk-eating Scythse. What could these tribes be 
but Finnic or Gomerian Celts, who, in the east of Europe, as 
in the west, were fused into later and more powerful tribes, 
with far less resistance than is often shown when kindred na- 
tions oppose the pretensions of each other ?=^ Hence races of 
Finnic origin passed, in antiquity, by conquest or mutual con- 
sent, into Celto-Scythae and Pelasgians, so that in many cases 
it is impossible to trace the nations further up than to their 
second or third amalgamation. We find this substantiated by 
words belonging in common to the Etruscan, Basque, Ligu- 
rian, and ancient languages of western Asia : such, for ex- 
ample, as Tar, in Tarchon, Brig, in Briga, Larch, in Larissa, 
Gut, in Calagurris, Maitagurra, the Durga of the Pyrenees, 
&c.; and there are others, in the traditions of tribes that appear 
to have been connected by Finnic consanguinity, such as the 
Basque Haitor, the most early British Heytor, the first, if not 
both, being a denomination of a superior divinity, probably allied 
to Thor. There is a still more remarkable coincidence in the 
Navarrese and Cantabrian legend of the blue cow, lowing 
from the verge of the mountain forest, when national disasters 
were at hand, corresponding to the same doctrine anciently 
believed in the western parts of the present Hanoverian domin- 
ions ; while both recall to mind the celebrated Indian mountain 
peak of Gho-Karma (the moaning cow), which, if it have a 
geographical position at all, must be the same as the seat of 
Mahadeo, at the. source of the Ganges, also known by the name 
of Himavahn. These and other Finnic and Oriental elements, 
known to exist in the Basque as it is now spoken, justify the 
claim we make of that ancient race as originally appertaining 
to the intermediate stem now under consideration, more par- 

* The river Alpheus bears a Finnic name, for Alf Elf, in Lapland and 
Finland, still denotes a torrent, and, it may not be amiss to observe, that 
Eric Erk, in Swcdo-Finnic, is still a proper name, always considered a 
synonym of Hercules. The Heraclidaj in fact were Finnic Goths. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 303 

ticularly as among the present inhabitants of France there are 
still extant the wrecks of tribes (the Cagots), which, from the 
first Celtic invasion to the present time, have never been 
acknowledged to form a portion of any, though the vulgar is 
willing to believe they are a residue of Arian Goths : which 
opinion, even if it were correct, would not much remove them 
from a Finnic origin. 

We may associate with these, also, the human ossuaries in 
the caverns of Guienne, in the vicinity of the river Lot in 
Quercy, described in a former article ; for they indicate a mode 
of disposing of the dead generally more careful than the Cel- 
tic ; and from the more common absence of the skulls, and 
the regular packing of the extremities in layers, an argument 
may be drawn to show, that they are second and final deposits 
of the departed of a race, whose first mode of preserving them 
was to have the bodies sewed up in skins, hung up for a given 
period in trees, and then buried, often with a stag's horn by the 
side ; a practice long in use among the Finnic and Gothic 
nations, and still followed by kindred tribes in both Americas. 

These deposits, in the south of central France, have still, 
on the mountain above them, the ruins of rectilinear and 
curved defensive works, not like those of the Gallic tribes ; 
and as they are in the vicinity of the Basque territory, it is 
likely that a kindred race was the owner of the soil before 
they were subdued or expelled by the progressing Celtag. It is 
most probable, that although the Finnic people spread over 
Europe, their movement from the east was in general coast- 
wise, and from north towards the south ; ascending great rivers 
from the sea, and in some cases only forming considerable 
communities. Hence, in Europe and the high north, they are, 
with scarce an exception, fish-eaters, boatmen ; never riders ; 
and only graziers, not cultivators, in the south, when secure 
from the nature of their location ; but even then still substi- 
tuting osier and willow branches for many purposes of domes- 
tic utility ; for such is still the practice among the Basques as 



304 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

well as the Laplanders. They seem, indeed, scarcely to have 
been capable of successful resistance against Celtic invaders, 
in their more pure stunted growth ; and that their physical 
strength was only on a par, and sometimes superior to them, 
when they were united with the giant forms of Yeta or Gothic 
origin, who no doubt lorded it over them, but certainly had 
also protective inclinations. Now tribes of this class, independ- 
ent of immediate rulers, are constantly found to accompany the 
smaller race, as in the Pyrenees, where the Gascons of low 
stature have the stalwart Cantabrians for neighbors and kin- 
dred ; and, again, where the first mentioned form of man is no 
longer traceable in history, the second is readily detected by 
names which always have reference to giant statures, as we 
have already remarked of the Tyrhenians, &c. So, again, in 
the swampy islands (paludes) of ancient Flanders, a small race 
seems once to have resided under the early protection of the 
Frieslanders, Vuriesen and Huinen, both denoting giants in 
the Theotisk dialect of Belgium, as it was spoken in the time 
of Charlemagne.^ 

Huin, pronounced somewhat in English with the sound of 
oi in coin, gives Hoin, which immediately reminds the reader 
of the name of the Huns, who are now admitted to have been 
an Ouralian Finnic people, allied to the Goths, and sweeping 
with it, in the train of temporary conquest, several hordes of 
Mongolians from the east, whose strange aspect misled, or 
suited the vituperative dismay of Anna Comnena, and the 
Greek and Roman ecclesiastical writers of the time, who had 
little better than abusive epithets to oppose to the conquerors. 

* There is an imperfect vocabulary of this form of the old western Teu- 
tonic in Olivarius Vredius, Hist. Comitum Flandrias, together with some 
fragments of Solomon's Song, &c., in the same. Two centuries after, it 
was nearly similar to the Anglo-Saxon. The present dialect of Flanders 
still contains many most ancient Theotisk words disregarded in dictiona- 
ries. But the examination of the whole question is well worthy the atten- 
tion of English Saxon scholars. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 805 

The Ostrogoths were associates of Attila, whose name was held 
among them in high honor, for we find it repeated in the list 
of Swedish kings. It is conspicuous in the oldest German 
Heldenbuch, and the Goths or the Lombards brought it into 
Italy, where Azzo and Azzolino, mutations of Atzel, the Teu- 
tonic form of the name, are prominent, chiefly among the 
Ghibeline nobles, as is naturally to be expected in civil contests 
between the northern and Italian races. 

The early alliance of the Finnic stem with the Gothic nations, 
besides the community of proper names, is still more evident in 
the mythical list of their progenitors, where the denominations 
of Geat and Finn are recognized by all the nations of the 
north-west, including the pagan Saxons of the east coast of 
England, who, in the poem of Beowulf, denominate themselves 
Geats, not Saxons.^ On the north of the Baltic, reminiscen- 
ces of the juxtaposition of the dwarf and giant races are abun- 
dant. Their contests and intermarriages are recorded in sagas, 
in several cases recompositions of more ancient documents, 
though passing at last into mythi, in a land where Laplanders 
still exist ; and the conquering race in the southern portion is 
even now a stalwart people. What they were in rude antiq- 
uity is often historically marked ; and very recently a letter 
from Professor Nielson announced to the Royal Academy of 
Stockholm the discovery of enormous human bones, accom- 
panied by flint arrows, bone spear-heads, and the remains of 
horses, stags, elks, and bears. 



THE BASQUES. 

From the foregoing remarks, we believe ourselves justified 
to claim the Basque, Esquara, or Vascon people, to be the 
most southern of the Finnic stem in Europe. Coming up the 

* See the important preface to Beowulf, in the excellent version of the 
original, by the learned John H. Kemble, edit. 1837. 

26^ 



306 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Garonne from the sea, it evidently spread towards the western 
Pyrenees ; for the ancient frontier fastnesses of these tribes are 
historically unknown to the north of that river, excepting Cala- 
gurris, now St. Lizier, on the Salat, an affluent at no great 
distance from the stream where it is but first emerging from 
the mountains. The nation extended, on the south of the great 
ridge, to the Ebro, where a similar fortress, likewise denomi- 
nated Calagurris, now Calahorra, commanded the upper Ebro. 
The capital was Pompelo, in the district of the Husia tribe. 

Denominations of places and early superstitions indicate a 
Finnic western Caucasian origin. In Spain the Cantabrians 
were always celebrated for valor, and for arresting the con- 
quests of the Moors, after the overthrow of the Goths ; per- 
haps evincing, by their support, a community of origin, which 
they alone possessed beyond the Pyrenees. Aided by these 
hardy mountaineers, the Goths resisted the southern invaders, 
and in the Asturian mountains formed the little kingdom of 
Oviedo, which soon again expanded into that of Leon. It was 
in the defiles of this region, that the Franks, under Charles 
Martel, or Charlemagne, are related to have lost their rear 
guard, with Roland, and nearly all the heroes of the French 
cycle of romance. They fell at the pass of Roncesvalles — 
more, it is said, by the swords of the Asturian mountaineers, 
than by the Arabian cavalry, which are not likely to have been 
suffered to enter the mountain fastnesses of a small, warlike, 
and justly distrustful Christian state. On the north of the 
western Pyrenees-, the Vascones, though early overlaid by 
Celtic tribes, the Tarbelli, and it may be the Venomanni and 
Aturi, were nevertheless of the same nation."^ 

* Consult Surita. Both Q,uinlilian and Prudentius were natives of 
Iberian Calagurris ; no doubt sprung from Roman colonists. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 307 



THE LIGURIANS OR LLOGRIANS. * 

In the eastern Pyrenees there was another people equally 
foreign to the Celtse, with affinities which appear to unite it 
with the Finnic family ; and it was called the Ligurian and 
Llogrian (the Llogrwys of the Celtas) ; probably originally the 
same as the Greek Locrian, which had three tribes in the 
mountains of northern Greece, and the colony of Osolean 
Locri in Italy. All these came from the north-east of the 
Euxine, where they had been neighbors of the Achai. They 
had a legend of their first king's son having been rescued 
from a wolf by a serpent. Naupactis, the present Lepanto, 
was their seaport ; but originally they had been savages, 
clothed in the skins of wild beasts, and having their wives in 
common, like the Vascones. They had names and terms 
which were likewise found in the Tyrhenian. Already, before 
the arrival of the Gauls, properly so called, this people having 
extended between the Cevennes and the sea-coast, up to the 
mountains of Spain, was encountered by other marine tribes, 
when, leaving some clans in Corsica, in the Hieres Islands, 
and among the Iberian families occupying the water Sycanist 
(the lagoons along the coast), they retreated to the Cottian 

* They were acknowledged to be Hyperboreans by descent, since 
Eschylus makes Prometheus instruct Hercules in the road towards the 
garden of the Hesperides : he must pass Caucasus, then encounter the 
fierce and innumerable Ligurians, and arrive at a high northern latitude. 
His imagery looks like an extract from Finnic sagas, the Calewala, or 
Scandinavian Edda. Bailley notices this passage, see Strabo Geogr. 

t Not unlikely a Teutonic word, Seekanf, border of the sea. This term 
would have no meaning, but for the lagoons along the coast, only separ- 
ated from the sea by a continuous belt of shingle. Sicani, Sitaceni, and 
Siculi, in this case, must mean maritime, coast men, water or sea men, 
the same as Cantii, in Britain. Yet these names again came from the 
Euxine Bosphorus, and, according toPhilistus, cited by Dion. Halic, the 
Siculi were of the same race as the Ligures, notwithstanding that Timeus 
named them aborigines of Sicily. 



808 ' NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Alps, the centre of its national strength, where the present 
Piedmont was in its possession. On the side of Italy, the cap- 
ital, Ticinum, now Pa via, was in the district of the Loevian 
tribe, with the Libuans, on the banks of Lake Garda, and the 
nation extended to the vicinity of the present Avignon, where 
Strabo places the Celto-Ligurians. They long were bold sea- 
men, and a brave and industrious people, defending their lib- 
erties against Roman encroachment during forty years, before 
their last tribe was subdued. They had been early disturbed, 
both in the Alps, and on the coast, by Gallic invaders, who 
absorbed or forced settlements among them. It was from the 
Ligurian tribe of Legobriges, about the year B. C. 600, when 
the Phoenician and Rhodian trade had declined, that the Pho- 
cian Euxinos obtained the cession of the port of Marseilles, 
by means of Petta, daughter of the chief Nannus. The trans- 
action is related with particulars, both by Aristotle and Justin ; 
but the fact itself indicates the consanguinity of these tribes 
with the Grecian Locri, who were neighbors of the Pho- 
cians. 

By the eminently marine habits of this people, and their 
migrating disposition, they were, it seems, scattered in various 
regions ; and nowhere, except at the head of the Adriatic and 
in the Alps, had national consistency. They were of common 
origin with the Istrian, Liburnian,and other tribes, who appear 
likewise to have claimed a Colchian descent. Their ships, 
from the humblest raft, and the coracle of three and a half ox- 
hides, sewed and stretched over a frame-work of willow, 
changing successively to lintres, logs, longs, Liburnic-biremes, 
caracks, caravellas, and finally to ragusas or argosies, were in 
general the models of those adopted by other nations, and 
Eeid W3.S their most ancient guiding star at sea. But, with 
the exception of the Liburnians, they were no longer mariners 
than the swarming period of their departure from Asia ; for 
in subsequent accounts v^'e find them move by land ; and if 
they were the same nation as the Llogrwys, or Llogrians, of 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 809 

British legend, they had once, at least, a tribe seated on the 
Llobregat in Spain, and no doubt were in part the migrators 
who, on retiring northward, crossed the Cevennes to the head 
waters of the river Loire (Ligeris), which they decorated with 
their own national appellation. Here they were joined by 
another, the Illyrian, Venetic, Henyd, Wend, or Gwyned tribe 
or association, for it may have originated entirely in the com- 
mercial spirit of the more enlightened persons of several tribes, 
and even whole clans. 

The Illyrian Alps, placed between Pannonia and the Adri- 
atic, contain a variety of nations, which, like those of West- 
ern Caucasus, might claim to be aboriginal, if they also were 
not known to have been colonies, which, in remote ages, came 
up the Danube, and were subsequently driven to the mountains, 
while others passed through the Bosphorus from the Black 
Sea, or came from Asia Minor, and skirted the coasts of 
Greece. Strabo mentions not less than eleven tribes, some of 
which we find again on the coasts of Colchis, and others are 
now admitted to be Scythian and Finnic. The Veneti, Carnes, 
&c., belong to this group. 

THE VENETI. 

According to their national tales, plainly the invention of 
later ages, the Italian Veneti pretended to be a colony of Tro- 
jan fugitives, under the conduct of Antenor. After they arrived 
in the west they warred with Servius Velesus, king of the 
Euganeans; and their records hinted at a consanguinity with 
the Heneti of Paphlagonia, where they were horsemen and 
hired soldiers, and, headed, it is said, by king Pylemenus, they 
served Priam in the Trojan war. But they were thrifty deal-' 
ers, since to them is assigned the introduction of mules in the 
markets of Asia Minor. The Greek poets spoke of their coun- 
try, situated at the mouth of the Eridanus (the Po), perhaps 
also the Rhine, where the Celtse dwelt ; and Virgil was well 



310 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

acquainted with their legends and assumed descent. Industri- 
ous, like modern Armenians, they had successively demanded 
the protection of the strongest power near them. At one time 
the Ligurians, and subsequently the Romans, took upon them- 
selves to defend their interests from Gallic aggression. Their 
capital, Padavium, now Padua, probably was one of those neu- 
tral marts necessary to barbarous nations ; it was older than 
Rome, and, in the time of Tiberius, the second, city of Italy for 
extent and riches. 

They were, Herodotus asserts, Illyrians ; and Servius names 
CEnetus, or Wenetus as one of their kings, assigning them to 
the same stock as the Liburnians ; also the Tauricians, who, 
like the Ligurian Taurini, had no doubt a Taurine, or Tor god; 
the Vindelicians, still more allied to the tribes of the Baltic, 
with the Brennians and Genaunians ; all at one time derived 
from the northern shores of the Euxine. Beyond the Liburni 
and Veneti, the Sigynnoe were the only people known to Hero- 
dotus, as far as the Ister (Danube) ; but as this name in the 
Ligurian tongue merely denotes traders (Zigeuner,^^ pedlers, 
tinkers), we may believe that it was a denomination of the 
Venetic merchants, who went overland to that river, and thence 
traversed Germany to the Baltic, where they had tribes of 
kindred origin. Therefore the whole may be claimed as of 
Finnic source, collectively originators of the numerous markets 
(nationally Ventae) existing before the extension of the Roman 
sway to beyond the Rhine and Danube, like a commercial 
net-work over the west of Europe. In Italy the word Forum 
was substituted for vent or guent by the Latin nations, while 
they left Venta to be used beyond the Alps. These were what 
are now known by the name of Scalae among the more modern 

* It may be remarked, that both the present Armenians and the gypsies 
Zincali (Zigeuner of the Germans) have a cranial structure very much 
resembling the high northern tribes of Finnic Hyperboreans, and are simi- 
larly nomads and soothsayers, sharp iu dealing, and ever, like the others, 
averse to war. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 811 

Italians; Markt, Fair, and Kioping, of the Gothic nations. 
The ■ existence of these emporia explains how the classical 
ancients came so early to be acquainted with the amber coast 
of the north ; for, in the third century B. C, Pythias, a Grecian 
traveller, and Divo, a Bithynian, at a later date, visited the 
present provinces of Pomerania and Prussia ; and though the 
work of the first named is lost, quotations remain sufficiently 
to establish the attention his narrative must have deserved.^^ 



THE ETRUSCANS. 

There was, beside the two nations of Upper Italy here 
noticed, a people more ancient than either, having in the lan- 
guage it spoke roots of Teutonic still more abundant ; which, 
although it was believed to be derived from two widely sepa- 
rated sources, still bore the same import in the designations of 
both their names. One, the Rasenic, it was asserted, had pos- 
session of the lower Tridentine Alps, when the other (the 
Tyrhenic) came up by sea, it is said from Tyrra in Lydia, and, 
landing at the mouth of the Po, built Adria or Hadria, on the 
margin of the river. The present town stands more than 
twenty feet above the original foundations, and ten above that 
which existed in the time of the Romans ; facts which, taking 
the accumulation of the soil near the mouth of the river to 
have advanced at an equal rate, would give about 3600 years 

* Pythias, quoted by Pliny, flourished about 330 B. C. He visited the 
amber coast, and notices the Guttones on the Montonomon estuary (the 
Frische Nahrung), at one day's journey from the island Abalus (the 
present Palmeniken), where amber was cast up by the sea. Divo is men- 
tioned as having visited the Baltic in the reign of Augustus ; he is quoted 
by Jaroslaw, domprobst of Ploezk. There is in Spon even an attempt to 
figure Hyperborean hunters, one riding a stag (reindeer) being shown 
galloping towards a net. The work of art is from a bas-relief, found at 
Etruscan Anxur. 



312 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

for the arrival of the colony which first commenced the city. 
Such a period is consistent with the first arrival of the CeltsB 
in Gaul. 

The Semi-Finnic Tyrheni were certainly allied to the 
Thraco-Pelasgians, and spoke a dialect not yet clearly ascer- 
tained ; had at a very early period an alphabet, which, 
although primarily also of sixteen letters, neither coincides 
with the Cadmean nor with the Roman."^ They were in 
possession of a growing civilization, such as smelting ores, and 
casting in brass effigies and bas-reliefs of divinities and men 
(they could even plate them with silver and gold), and made 
fictile vases variously colored; whereon, either in consequence 
of captured Greeks being among their early slaves, or from 
causes not known, there are found depicted Hellenic Mythi, 
often with circumstances not mentioned in the Greek poets, 
and yet extending over the whole geographical surface of their 
fables, from Palestine and Asia Minor to Sicily, and even to 
Gades in Spain. Like the Pelasgians, they built walls of 
cities with stones of enormous dimensions, generally in 
courses, with more regularity; but, unlike them, they had fre- 
quent subterranean passages, or galleries of mines beneath 
their cities, the use of which is not yet understood. They 
constructed their tombs usually in caves, dug with skill and 
considerable beauty, so well concealed and blocked up, that 
many have been discovered only in latter times ; and these are 
found to have been adorned with sculptures and paintings of no 
mean artistical merit. The national mythology was however 
totally distinct from the Greek or Roman, and approximated, 
or was identical with, that of other Finnic tribes. Such were 
the Falsen of Etruria (Falaces), pillar-gods, usually repre- 
sented in pairs, once well known to the pagan Scandinavians, 

* It appears that the Greek alphabet never contained at one time all the 
Etruscan forms, and they continued to write from right to left. It is 
probable the early Celts wrote with the same letters. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 313 

the Laplanders, and the Finnic Lithuanians, and still found in 
the houses of the Tschutski of the north-east of Asia.^ 

Being brave, and skilled in the arts of life and war, although 
they had contests with, and expelled the Kerkopes (by 
the name evidently a dwarfish race, which fled to Sicily), it is 
evident that they were not numerous during their occupation 
of the present Lombardy ; for they withdrew to make room for 
the Ligurians and Heneti, and were driven off still further by 
the Gauls, their strong walled cities being all on the Mediter- 
ranean side of Upper Italy. Rome itself was partly an Etrus- 
can colony, and owed most of the elements of its greatness to 
the institutions and example of that people. It is to be 
regretted that these tribes, ruled by independent Lucumons,1 
wanted national unity when they were strong ; for what the 
barbarians had begun on the north-west, the Romans fin- 
ished from the south-east, the whole nation being gradually 
absorbed by the conquering republic. They were manufac- 
turers, merchants, and navigators, till they were worsted by 
Greek assailants, coming from Sicily, and by the Phocian 
colony of Massilia. Yet it is to the objects of barter which 
they themselves, or the friendly Venetic traders, or subse- 
quent rival Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, and Gauls, carried 
down the Loire, or across the German territory to the Baltic, 
that we must refer the bronze efiigies, heads of standards (?), 
helmets, shields, arms, and even coins, often containing Greek 
mythological subjects, but bearing scarcely any tokens of 

* See Ossian, Ca-lodin, "Like the pillars of Lodin at Sliva." — Duaa 
II. Were these perchance also the same as the Finno-Teutonic Aloes, 
Alkes, Alsen, brethren divinities, with a priest clothed in woman's gar- 
ments, and honored, without images, in a wood? It may nevertheless be 
suspected, that elk or stags' horns represented them, as reindeer horns 
are still used for idols by Laplanders and Samoyeds. Ailsen, on the 
Weser, may have been a local city for them, and the meaning might be 
perhaps taken from Elke, each or both. Certainly not Castor and Pollux, 
in the classical view of these meteor gods. 

t Lucumon, Teutonic Lachman, man of law, judge. 
27 



314 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Greek skill; for all these have been found in Gaul, Britain, 
the Tyrol, in the waters of the Baltic, and even in the bogs of 
Ireland.^ 

The three nations, Etruscans, Ligurians, and Veneti, called 
the river Eridanus, which each, in turn, had possessed, by the 
names of Podan, Podines, Podinco (the Po), the terminal par- 
ticle being still abundantly found in certain localities of Lap- 
land. To these we might join the kindred lUyrian tribes, both 
on the Danube and the Adriatic, the pirate Liburni, with their 
fast rowing galleys, the Carni, and other clans, as before shown, 
mixed even with the Hellenic race ; and all, like the true Finnic 
people, with remarkable veneration for the dead, for sorcery, 
apparitions, and human sacrifices. But for the present these 
circumstances may be passed over, as we shall have occasion 
to revert to them in the sequel. 

Few vestiges of the Finnic people can now be traced in the 
hill and mining regions of middle Europe, excepting perhaps 
in the Alpine, where the name of Tschudi is still preserved in 
one or more families of some distinction ; and to the west, in 
the Highlands of Scotland, or in northern Ireland, where the 
significant name of the Fion, Fingall, Fingal, represents a 
marine tribe, avowedly acquainted with Lochlin, Norway, 
Friesland, or more properly, the eastern portion of the Baltic ; 

* Such is the bronze group, eight inches high, representing the Centaur 
Chiron, with young Achilles on his back, in the act of drawing his bow, 
and a dog leaping against the fore-leg of the horse part, the whole stand- 
ing on a scroll with a ferule, evidently intended to support a lance. It 
was found near Sidmouth, much worn by ages of attrition in the wash of 
the sea. Again, a winged figure, sounding a trumpet, having one knee 
bent, the other resting on a globe, supported by a ferule, eight inches 
high, found in the bog of Allen in Ireland. Also numerous specimens of 
small brazen two and three horned bulls, ensigns of the Sequani, Taurini, 
&c., bas-relief figures of champions, in copper, found in Tyrol, and silver 
elastic spiral weighing-scales, with Roman stamp upon them, found in 
the Baltic ; all, excepting the last, bearing evidence of Etruscan or bar- 
barian workmanship. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 315 

by its name clearly assuming the mixed origin of Finn and 
Gael. It was one marked as miners and sword smiths, person- 
ified in the name of Luno, and, moreover, a tribe with Finnic, 
not Celtic, religious superstitions. These qualities ally the 
Fion closely with the oldest Cymbers of the north-west, who 
were themselves Scythian-Celts, which is the same as Finns 
of mixed origin with northern Celtse.^ 

Further north, from Denmark to the extremities of the 
Baltic, Teutonic Finns were spread all along the shores of that 
inland sea, perhaps even in Jutland, the best known still 
existing either entirely Germanized, or only so in their per- 
sonal appearance. In Scandinavia, they were miners from 
remote ages, wherever the topography of the land gave assur- 
ance that ores were beneath the surface. On the German 
side, fishermen, navigators, pirates, and merchants, collectively 
known, in a subsequent period, as Venden, Vandals, Vuidini, 
having every appearance of a consanguinity with the Veneti 
on the Adriatic, and exchanging, by their means, amber and 
peltry with the nations of the south, through the interior of 
Germany. The city Wineta, on the west of the Isle of 
Usedom, in the subsequently known kingdom of the Obotritae, 

* The Creon dynasty acquired supremacy over the Gaelcoch, or Red- 
Haired Celts, in the second century of the Christian era. From the fall 
of GalgacuSj four generations, Trenmor, Trathal, Comhal, and last Fin- 
gal, ruled, when the power appears to have passed to the Maeatas, or to 
the family of Gaul, the more ancient head of the people. During the 
Creon dynasty, the conquests of the Romans were first arrested and then 
thrown back behind the wall. But whether the name of Fingal be 
derived from Vindgael (head of the foreigners), may be questioned, 
though all the Gallic nations then in the north were strangers. There 
were iron works in Britain before Caesar's invasion, as is proved by the 
chains and fastenings of the fleet he defeated on the coast of Gaul. 
The bardic similes still notice "the hundred hammers of the furnace," 
"the stream of metal from the furnace," &c. There is even the shiel- 
ing of Glenturret, called Renna Cardich, or the smith's dwelling, 
with remains of cinders, scorise, and ruins, all evidence of antique iron 
works. 



316 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

but now sunk beneath the sea, was the first and greatest 
emporium of the north, having paved streets, temples, it is said, 
with brazen gates, and a vast population of strangers and 
nations of various origin forming the citizens. Wineta, per- 
haps the typical Vana-land of mythic sagas, was the parent 
community, whence Arkona, Jomsberg, and JoUin originated. 
It was the most distant of the Venetic commercial establish- 
ments; others being at Venta Allobrogum, now Vienne, on the 
Rhone ; Bienne, at the Vendoni Campi, near Zurich ; at Venda, 
now Augsburg; Vendobona, now Vienna, on the Danube; 
Vannes, on the Loire ; Guines, near Calais, probably also at 
Gwent or Vennemare, near Ghent ; at Vingium, now Bingen, 
on the Rhine ; Venta Belgarum, now Winchester, and Venta 
Icenorum, Caer Gwent. They extended even to Ireland, 
where Ptolemy places the Promontorium Venicinum. They 
repeated, in this manner, the commercial policy of the Phoeni- 
cians, whose name may not be unconnected with the Veneti, 
and anticipated what the Baltic Vandal Lombards again 
restored, in the middle ages, under the form of Lombard 
streets, in most commercial cities of mediaeval Europe. 

They had a commercial intercourse through Russia, and 
with the Greek colony at Olbio, on the Borysthenes. It may 
even be no chimerical supposition, that it was from the Baltic 
cities that the Hyperborean annual donation came to Delos, 
which Herodotus and others have noticed. According to 
Took, the Permians had a barter trade with the Indo-Persians, 
by the Volga and Kama, to Tscherdyn, on the Kolva, where 
they received the goods, and carried them up to Petchora, in 
exchange for furs. Thus the presence of Hindoo opinions and 
idols may be accounted for, in the poems and antique remains 
among the Finnic nations. The entirely foreign commence- 
ment of the above-named cities is proved, among other indica- 
tions, by their having alone, of all the Baltic nations, temples 
for national idols, while other Finns had only sacred hedged 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 317 

localities for their divinities and religious ceremonies.=^ As 
already stated, there were two distinct races successively 
inhabitants of Wineta, and the other neutral trading communi- 
ties on the south of the Baltic ; the first, composed originally 
of true Veneti from the Adriatic, strengthened by Celtse from 
the same quarter, — by Roman outlaws and fugitives, — by 
Celto-Scyth^, that reached the north by ascending the Sarma- 
tian rivers, and by Yeta or Goths from the Lake of Ladoga, 
all cemented together by marriages with Finnic wives, a prac- 
tice that commenced at least three centuries before the reign 
of Augustus, and which finished by forming the tribes dena- 
tionalized by all the immediate people around them into that 
power, which, under the name of Yandals and Venden, pene- 
trated, about five centuries later, southward to the seat of their 
relatives or progenitors.! A second community formed after 
their departure, and retaining only a part of the former popula- 
tion, was composed of Finnic Sarmatians still more heteroge- 
neous ; for the first, arising out of a congregation of merchants, 
who had taken wives from the Finn or Sclavonic resident 
tribes, formed a homogeneous community, without tribal dis<- 
tinctions, and assenting to the same pagan divinities ; but the 
second was an assemblage of clans, which retained their dis- 
tinct nationalities, lived in separate quarters, and even distinct 
castles, until they rebelled against the authority of the magis- 
trates. These people were known to the Huns by the name 
of Vuinid Fulce, the same as the Celtic, Wenid Vole, and 
Theotisk Wenden Folk, and the acceptation of Wend or Vend 
is still retained in the modern Belgic Vent, a man of superior 
importance, a wanderer, a travelling merchant. Vend, in 
Gaelic, a head or chief; the fusion of the Finnic Yeta with the 

* Mone gives detailed notices of the nationality, religion, and institu- 
tions of the Finnic nations of the Baltic. See " Geschichte des Heiden- 
thums in nordlichen Europa," vol. i. 

t They first appeared in arms against the Romans, in the reign of M. 
Aurelius, A. D. 173. 

27# 



518 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Celtic race being perceptible in various recorded names and 
events. Thus, in A. D. 563, the Winetans elected for their 
king Samo, a pagan Sennonian Gallic merchant, who con- 
tinued his reign during thirty-five years. A Finnic Celt, of 
great ability, has, during the present generation, again found 
an elective throne in the high north. The Boii, a tribe of 
Celto-Scythse, wandered from Gaul to Bohemia, perhaps a pris- 
tine home ; others resided, according to Lelewel, in Gallicia, 
all before the Christian era ; and therefore Gaul was not un- 
known to the Vandals when they removed to the south. We 
trace the Celtic nationality still further, in the name of Wal- 
linische Werder, the locality where Jomsberg, one of the sister 
cities, was built; even at Dantzig, the same influence was per- 
ceived in the appellation of the river Rodaun. Historically, it 
is found in the bond of long-enduring neutrality which the 
Winetans, then called Vandals, maintained among themselves, 
the Goths, Suevi, and Burgundians, during their offensive wars 
against the Roman empire ; and their power, in the facility 
which Stilicho, a native Vandal, found towards the attainment 
of the first honors of the empire, as well as for raising up 
enemies against it in his own cause. Political considerations 
may have prevented the Vandal inroad from proceeding beyond 
Pannonia tov/ards Italy. The Illyrian Veneti probably bought 
off the invaders, and pointed out the greater facility of con- 
quests in the south of Gaul and Spain ; for, being inferior in 
numbers, and less national than the Goths, as subsequent 
events in the peninsula of Spain attest, they were well advised 
to pass on, and, when followed, were even then compelled to 
retire to Mauritania, where Genseric took Carthage in 439, 
and subsequently being called over to Italy, he plundered 
Rome in 455, but only to return to Africa. Although, accord- 
ing to Witichindus, Wineta was then flourishing on the 
Baltic, the Adriatic Vcncti ben^an at Venice ao-ain to form a 
central commercial emporium, and their numbers were soon 
so great at Constantinople, that the blue faction in the hippo- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 319 

drome,^ representing the manufacturing power, wholly in their 
hands, gave cause for serious alarm to the government; even 
to a degree that ridiculous measures were resorted to, such as 
secretly enclosing the effigy of a blue Veneta in the brazen 
hoof of the winged group of Bellerophon, in order that by 
means of this talisman the Venetic superiority might be coun- 
teracted. 

In the Baltic, however, the more recent mixed communities 
of Winetans, now first called Aestii, or Ostmen, began to droop 
by internal dissension,! and by the revival of trade in the south 
of Europe, till the great storm of 809, when the city being par- 
tially submerged, and Jomsberg nearly ruined, broke their power; 
and though they made several gallant stands against the pirati- 
cal rapacity of the Northmen, Wineta was sacked by Hemming, 
king of the Danes, leaving the wreck of former industry to sur- 
vive only until Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, led a cru- 
sade against the Sclavonic tribes of the coast, and commenced 
their absorption iato the German race, leaving the completion 
of the task to the zeal of two religious orders of knights, which 
effected their conquest in the thirteenth century. 

The Finnic races, originally more pacific, industrial, and 
sedentary, were often broken through by migratory hordes from 
the east; their colonies, towards the south, were isolated or 
absorbed, sometimes so changed by intermixture that the lan- 
guage became pseudo Gothic or Theotisk. Thus, very an- 
ciently, it becomes doubtful whether the Suciones (Swedes) were 
of the last mentioned or of the first race ; most likely they were 
mixed ; for Saomi, the proper name of the present Finns, resem- 
bles the old Scandinavian appellation. 

Of the Sclavonic Finns, Prussian, Livonian, Esthonian, Fer- 

* Blue was the sacred, and still is the most esteemed color of the Finnic 
nations of the north, as well as of the Illyrian Veneti. 

t Winni or Wenden, Heneti or southern Wynetas, Suliones, Slavi, Rossi, 
Cambrivii, Circipanni, Rutheni, Greeks, and Jews, began to fortify sep- 
arate quarters against or for Christianity. 



820 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

mean, Lithuanian, and Courlanders, we need not give details, 
which are already generalized in Balbi (Atlas Ethnographique), 
and reviewed with as much learning as detail in Mone,^ who 
describes, circumstantially, the national traditions, gods, and 
religious worship of the different nations, and, among others, of 
the Prussian. It is remarked, that no people of the north was 
once so rich in literary monuments ; for though a vast quantity 
of legends and traditions still exist, there were thirty-one 
national chronicles consulted by Hennenberger, all of which 
have perished, excepting five, it is supposed by the contempt 
of the Teutonic order of knights, and by the neglect of the 
kings of Poland, who shared the ancient archives. From the 
above, it is clear, that a vein of indigenous civilization had 
worked on the Baltic, perhaps drawing its remote source from 
Bactria, by commercial Colchis, totally distinct from southern 
lore, excepting in the degree which Greek and Roman inter- 
course might have afforded, or Jewish wanderers, who early 
found favor among the Finnic Tahtars of Western Asia, may 
have introduced. 



THE FINNS OR SUOMI. 

Crossing the Gulf of Finland, we come to the Suomi, Finne- 
lap, or Finn people, still so called, which, however, notwith- 
standing the rocky hills, innumerable lakes, and many woods 
wherein it lies concealed, the three sealike gulfs which surround 
it, and the rigorous winters of that latitude, has still not escaped 
perhaps more than half hybridism ; for the northern portion 

* " Geschichte des Heidenthums in nordlichen Europa." The abun- 
dance of records and manuscripts was here, no doubt, as elsewhere, the 
consequence of national intermixtures. King Vanland, who wedded 
Drifva (trade), daughter of old King Snoe, may represent the peaceful 
mercantile intercourse with the Venetic cities. Snoe himself gives an 
idea of ermines and peltry, or at least of the high latitude where the trade 
was carried on. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 321 

alone can be considered as typical of the semi-intermixture of 
the Hyperborean and Caucasian stocks. It is there alone that 
the Lapland tongue finds so much affinity as to amount to a 
decided similarity ; there the great distinguishing mental char- 
acteristic of the whole subtype is observed, in the permanence 
and generality of iron mining propensities ; the godlike office 
of the forging smith, the constant poetical allusion to gold, 
silver, and iron, are prominent; and all the sorcery and incan- 
tations of the Laplanders, short of their magical drums, even 
now in vogue, — practices alike common to the kindred Shamans 
of Asia and the Angekoks of Arctic America. Although the 
Finnic race repudiates in national pride all consanguinity with 
the Laplander, the northern portion almost equally reviles the 
southern, because it is less conversant with the old nationali- 
ties, and is more generally, if not altogether, tall, straight, and 
fair-haired. On examination, we are assured that there is 
equal distinctness in the cranial structure between them ; but, 
as yet, no account of a thoroughly scientific inquiry in this 
question appears to have reached middle Europe. 

They are, moreover, accused by the Swedes of being more 
malevolent, a greater proportion of Finns occurring on the list 
of malefactors than of natives of Sweden, when both countries 
were under the same crown ; and though the linguistic affinities 
were described, and the religious dogmas were supposed to be 
sufficiently well known, the recent discovery of a Finnic poem, 
named the Kalewala, shows that the sources of research in the 
north are far from exhausted, and that their harmonious lan- 
guage was anciently more polished than has been thought. "^ 

The ancient Finns were, however, mixed with Yeta races at 
a very early period ; since a peaceful union between them is 

* Kalewala, or the adventures of Waina Moina, the god of verse, a 
Finnic epic poem, in thirty-two runas, published by Professor Loenroth, 
a Finn by nation. There is a French version of it by M. Leouzon le Due, 
1846 ; but it is strange we hear of none in German, though the -work is 
regarded as perfectly genuine. 



322 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

clearly shown, in the names of Finn, Suen or Sum, that is, 
Sweno and Atzel, or Attila, which occur both in the lists of 
Swedish kings, Lombard chiefs, and in part among the Ger- 
manic gods. The physical Jotun (Yeta) appear to have been 
the giant masters of this people, till they were vanquished by 
the Gothic Asi, and driven to live in rocks and caverns, afford- 
ing a foundation of that dualism, afterwards mythologically 
applied for the national runes, which even do not conceal dislike 
to the Asi, and felicitously represent them as destined to be 
ultimately vanquished ; for the basis of Scandinavian mythic 
lore is Finnic. 

Fornjoter, the King, progenitor of the Finnic people, bears 
not a proper name, but an appellative of distinction. His altars, 
overthrown by Thor, show a system of worship destroyed by the 
Asi, but nothing to disprove that the whole did not come from 
the east; that region whence their mythological kindred, the 
Jotun, are to arrive from, in the ship Nagelfar, at the last day 
of the world's existence.^ 

Immediately on the north of the Suomi, are the tribes of 
Laps, who speak a dialect of the same language, although they 
are almost pure Hyperboreans. The somewhat equal inter- 
mixture of this race with a Gothic people constitutes the real 
basis of the Finnic sub-typical stem, since others, more to the 
eastward, with Slavonic, and again with Caucasian Yeta tribes, 
produce the same result. Thus, it may be assumed, the Hunnic 
power was likewise generated in Asia from eastern Caucasians, 
mixed with Hyperboreans ; for, when interunion occurs, the 
Caucasian type so readily becomes superior, that it is soon 
doubtful whether any Mongolic blood can be externally observed 
to be present. This is in Asia the case with the fair Ostiaks 
of Siberia — the Wotiaks and Tscheremisses — the Mordwines 
and Wogules ; and, in a less degree, among the Permeans oi 

* The Finns, like the American Savages, have feasts of the bear hunt, 
mystical notions of his origin, and, like them, give him by-names, believ- 
ing in his superhuman knowledge. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 323 

Syrians of Russia, and even the Ghoorkas of the Himalayas 
are accounted Zwergi, or of dwarf race. 

THE HUNS. 

The Huns, originally from Yoguria, being kindred of the 
Wogules and Ostiaks, held the region between Tomsk and 
Tobolsk, till they moved westward to the confines of Europe. 
De Guines and Klaproth differ on their origin more in degree 
than fundamentally. They are first noticed in the time of 
Augustus, by Dion. Periegetes. In the second century they 
occupied the extensive region between the Caspian Sea and the 
Borysthenes, having propelled or incorporated the Gepidae and 
the eastern Goths. They advanced in A. D. 375, to beyond the 
borders of the Danube, and became the most formidable power 
of Asia and Europe ; for, in the fifth century, under Attila, they 
had sway from the borders of China to the Rhine, his capital 
city being Buda, or Hunnic Ettelvar. They ravaged with 
their armies all Germany and the north of France, and pene- 
trated to the gates of Rome. At that period most of the 
nomad tribes of Asia were in his service ; hence the nation 
might have been called ferocious and ill-favored ; but here also 
the Caucasian element had already so greatly influenced the 
external form of the Ispans,or higher chiefs, that these were not 
inferior to any other privileged races of Europe."^ The proper 

*The goat face of Attila, with horns and beard, represented on a Latin 
medal, together with the assertion that he called himself " Flagellum 
Dei," is mere monkish quibbling upon the names Atzel, Attel, Attalus, 
carried to the Hebrew Atzail, a wandering goat ; hence in Arabic, Azalin, 
Satan. Attila's profile on a coin is shown, with lengthened features, a pair 
of wings at the shoulders, and his private symbol ^ occurs beneath the 
figure of a horse on the reverse, so much in the manner of Hindoo Bactriau 
art that there can be little doubt of its authenticity. He died in 453. A 
coin, given for one of Attila, or Ath-tila, king of Sweden, circa 548, is 
more properly applied to the Hunnic sovereign ; for he is figured on horse- 
back, carrying in his hand the trident or tripula, a real Bactrian weapon ; 
yet there he is styled Gauta og Suethiot Kongr. See GenswolflT runa Kefli ; 
also profiles of Hyatili princes among coins in Wilson's Aria Antiqua. 



324 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

names, Balamir, Bleda, Iring, and Atzel, the Lombardy Afzo, 
Ailfred, and other words, show the Gothic element pervading 
usages and objects of social convenience ; and the courts of 
their kings, if the old Burgundian (Prankish) legends may be 
credited, were as hospitable, as polished, and as splendid, as 
those of the Greek and Latin sovereigns of that time. The 
Huns subjected or associated the Haiatili, white Huns, Heph- 
tal of the Armenians, a partial kindred, with the Yuchi and 
Sacai, who came from beyond the Oxus, and were seated in 
Meweram and Khawarism, with the capital Gogo, probably Ker- 
keng. They invaded Affghanistan, Scinde and Persia, in 428 ; 
but, driven back by Baharam-Ghor, were extended on the north 
of the Caspian ; but, if the conjecture of Professor Wilson be 
admitted, they were still powerful east of the Indus, since they 
took and destroyed the vast city of Valhabi, in Gujrat, in the 
year 524 of our era. 

When the Hunnic empire had declined, we find a large force 
of their cavalry under the command of Iliphred and Apsich, in 
the service of the Byzantine emperor, forming the left wing of 
the army at the battle of Solacon, in the year 586, where 
Philippicus defeated the Persians. 

Other Finnic nations, debris of the Hunnic empire, such as 
the Avares, became predominant in Eastern Europe in the 
sixth century. In conjunction with the Lombards, they de- 
stroyed the power of the Gepidae, a tribe of Yeta, who had again 
risen to independence, defeated Sigebert, king of the Franks, 
and rendered the Bulgarians tributary; but, in the next cen- 
tury, revolting under the conduct of Conviat, these in their turn 
became puissant, and long held sway in Moesia, on the south 
of the Danube. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 325 



THE KHAZARS. 

The Khazars, already mentioned by Armenian writers of the 
second century, were a nation both warlike and agricultural ; 
and, being greatly intermixed with Jewish exiles, they changed 
from Budhism to the Mosaic tenets in the seventh century, and 
conferred the title of Hake (king priest) to a Hebrew family, 
while the temporal authority continued in the hands of the 
Khagan. In 858 they became Christians, but forsook the cross 
to please the Chorasmians. They traded largely in peltry 
from the north, and in other wares from the south-east of Asia. 
Usually the allies of the Greek empire, their dominions ex- 
tended from the Sea of Aral to the river Bogue. Their capital 
was Baliangar, or Attel, at the mouth of the Volga, and they 
having formed a portion of the Hunnic empire, and probably ab- 
sorbed the Haiatili, appear to have built cities in Hungary, 
doubtless by colonists, or by establishing ventas. 



THE HUNGARIANS.* 

The Hungarians, or Magyar Toorkees, seem to have issued 
from the same Ouralian quarter, and were, w^th the last men- 
tioned, formidable to the Khalifs of Persia, about the close of 
the seventh century. By the end of the ninth, they found 

* The Byzantine writers view the Huns and Turks as the same ; and, 
indeed, the names Huns, Hungarians, Unni Occidentales, Onoguri, Ugri, 
Ungri, Ongrij are all the same, or tribes of the same people. The Avari or 
Abares may have had a greater Caucasian element in their national 
origin. In the whole of the high region west of the Caspian, to the 
Euxine and eastern coast of the Mediterranean, as far as the Hellespont, 
it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate distinctly the Finnic from the 
pure Germanic and Celtic nations. Long before the historic age they 
absorbed a Melanic nation, which Herodotus called the Colchian in his 
time. The Pelasgi and Dorians were perhaps Lesghi, and tribes that 
went into Thynia, from the coast of Thrace, only completed a circle of 
emigration round the Euxine. 

28 



326 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

themselves established in their present abode, where they 
incorporated the remnant of ancient Huns, still left in Panno- 
nia. They long ravaged central Europe, until they became 
Christians in the eleventh, from which period they have been a 
repeated spoil of the Osmanlis. The Magyars offer another 
instance where the Finnic stem produces gigantic men; for the 
Hungarian grenadiers and the national heydukes are more 
generally of great stature than any other nation of Europe. 
During the time they resided near the Black Sea, they appear 
to have been in close friendship with the Zychi or Circassian 
tribes ; for they have not only a great external correspondence 
of appearance, but the Circassian language, like the old Arme- 
nian and the Hungarian, contains a great number of Finnic 
words, and the Lesghi-Avares of the same mountains have 
many Hunnic proper names still retained among them. 

It is probably to these tribes of pure Caucasians, or of 
hybrid Finns, that the Gog and Magog giants of antiquity, or 
rather the Haiguge and Magiuge of Curds and Persians, so 
long the terror of south-western Asia, are to be traced ; for the 
pass of Derbend, on the Caspian, was already, in remote ages, 
vainly closed by artificial defences, to keep them from pene- 
trating to the south. "^ 

The interunion of Hyperborean with northern Caucasian 
races constituting also, in our view, the Ouralian stem of 
arctic Asia, it follows, that in this place the Toorkee tribes, 
who have the same conformation of the skull as the bearded 
stock, should be classed with the Finn or Tschudic group, 
although they are known originally to have been Hyperboreans 
of the most deformed personal exterior, according to European 
notions. They have already been mentioned in the notice of 

* Portce CaspijE and Pylae Albaniae of the classical writers ; Derbend, 
gate of security, in Persia ; Demir Capi, iron gate of the Turks. The 
Chinese wall, the Sassanian lines ofChorassan, and the Roman wall of 
Britain, were all constructed to arrest the progress of the same Hyperbo- 
reans of mixed origin. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 327 

the Mongolian type, to which they v/ere most strictly allied, so 
long as they remained unmixed. 



THE TURKS. 

Thus, the Atrak Turks, more especially the Osmanlis, differ 
from the other Toorkees, by their lofty stature, European feat- 
ures, abundant beards, and fair complexions, derived from 
their original extraction being Caucasian, of Yuchi race, or 
from an early intermixture with it, and with the numerous cap- 
tives they were for ages incorporating from Kashmere, Affghan-J 
istan, Persia, Syria, Natolia, Armenia, Greece, and eastern 
Europe. Both these conjectures may be true, because the Cau- 
casian stock, wherever we find it, contrives to rise into power, 
from whatever source it may be drawn, and therefore may in 
part have been pure before the nation left eastern Asia, 
while the subordinate hordes remained more or less Hyperbo- 
rean in character ; as, in truth, the normal Toorkees about the 
lower Oxus still are. All have, however, a peculiar form of 
the posterior portion of the skull, whiizh is less in depth than 
the European, and does not appear to be a result of the 
tight swathing of the turban. Osmanli Turks are a handsome 
race, and their children in particular are beautiful. The 
Tschudic Toorkees, moreover, had in ancient times a Sabaean 
alphabet, written vertically from right to left, not brought, as 
De Sacy appears to believe, from Syria, by early Christian 
sects, for in that case it would never have been distorted to a 
Chinese mode of placing the lines. It is more likely the real 
ancient Bactrian form, one connected with the literature and 
science of remote ages, not to be so peremptorily rejected, be- 
cause no other proofs of this kind of Kunic or Ogham are now 
to be found in the region where it flourished ; and the Sanscrit, 
more perfect, and more extensively dominant, supplanted it, 
even in Thibet. At a remote age, they came upon the Taujiks 
(original Persians) ; they subdued or expelled them, and named 



328 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

their conquest Toorkistan. It is to the Finnic tribes, first pro- 
pelled across the Jaxartes by these conquerors, that the dynasty 
or the rulers named Afrasiab, so celebrated in Persian tales, 
are to be referred, when the names of Iran and Aniran first 
began to be distinctive of Persia and Bokhara, while the adja- 
cent states, more anciently called Bactria, retained the name of 
the capital, Bactra, only in the writings of the west ; for Finnic 
Toorkees had called it Zarias, probably Serai, and at one time 
it bore the name of Bykum. Afrasiab, whose race was fair- 
haired, proves that the stock was not so much Turkish as Fin- 
nic ; and the same inference applies to Salser and to Ros- 
tum; consequently, that the ruling clan of Cabulistan was for a 
period of northern race. 

Of the Torkee branch the Hiong-nu, according to Abel 
Remusat, is the most ancient recorded in history. It once 
inhabited Mongolia proper, and possessed a vast empire, which 
flourished about three centuries before the Christian era; and 
the dissolution of this state was the chief cause of that succes- 
sion of barbarian invasions, which, like rolling waves, inces- 
santly poured upon the west during several centuries, driving 
intermediate nations before them, or breaking through discom- 
fited tribes, which, in order to escape, made the most destruc- 
tive inroads themselves ; often at war with each other, the em- 
pire passing to a different tribe, or with the Huns, and other 
more strictly Finns, who in turn held temporary dominion. 
The Thou Kioei, or Altaic Turks, according to Byzantine his- 
torians, formed, in 552, a vast empire, which soon reached from 
the Caspian to China, and broke up in 703. It was Dzabul, 
their Kan-Khan, who received the ambassador Zemarkh, sent 
by Justin II., in 569, when another embassy from the emperor 
of the west was already returning. 

The Tchy-le or Thiele, a numerous nation, resided, in the 
sixth century, to the east of Lake Balkach, under the names 
of Kaoutche and Hoei-he, and from 788 that of Hoei-hou 
represent the same people. The Tchy-le, according to Klap- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 3£9 

roth, mustered above 300,000 horsemen, and the Hoei were 
formidable in the eighth century, when they were already 
advanced in civilization. The Seldjucks, so named after the 
chief adventurer, who enlisted men of different tribes under his 
banner, broke into southern Asia in the ninth century, during 
the reign of Malek ; they overturned the empire of the Khalifs, 
formed the states of Iran, Kerman, and Eoum or Iconium ; and 
from the Seldjucks sprung the Osmanlis, the present sovereigns 
of Turkey. We might here add those tribes with Circassian 
chiefs, the Petchenages, probably identical with the Kanjars. 
The Romans and Uzu, united in the eleventh century, who 
were known to the Russians by the name of Palowze, and 
Chuni by the Hungarians. From the tenth to the twelfth cen- 
turies they were the terror of eastern Europe, till in the thir- 
teenth they were exterminated by the Mongols. 

All these nations, as well as the true Caucasians we are 
about to describe, moved into Europe from the distant east, by 
routes which, it would appear, were entirely the result of 
chance ; yet, upon examination, it is found that the great 
majority of cases, in whatever geographical locality a prime- 
val column sought its permanent abode in the west, there, 
also, one wave after another of kindred race subsequently 
found its home, notwithstanding ages intervened, and circum- 
stances had thrown new obstacles in the way. Perhaps 
intermediate points had continued to be occupied by relatives 
of both, or records of the success of former colonists had 
reached back to their points of departure ; or, finally, it was 
because there are in geography natural directions of progress 
from one region to another, however distant ; and that local 
conditions impel all migrators, once moving on a given line, to 
follow it out to the ultimate destination. These observations 
apply entirely in the human movements, from east to west ; 
mountain chains, deserts, the course of rivers, and even real 
obstacles, conspire to produce the same results, while the con- 
trary direction is all but impracticable. Intellectual power 
28=^ 



330 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

alone, where arms have ever failed, brings it back to the east 
by the progress of religious truth, of science, and of the reason- 
ing of common sense ; thus amply repaying Asia for the innu- 
merable rudiments of practical and imaginative life we have 
owed her for so many ages. 

Having disposed of the Finnic Stem, and shown, in the mix- 
ture of the Hyperborean with the Caucasian stocks, the direct 
consequence of soon obliterating the external appearance of 
hybridism, and perhaps, with somewhat less procreative fertil- 
ity, tending to elevate individuals and whole clans to giant 
forms, we should now proceed with the true Caucasian or 
bearded type, if it were nqt that, at the commencement of the 
division of the primaeval stocks, we had noticed, on the south 
of the Caucasian, that there was similarly an intermediate stem 
formed of the woolly-haired or Negro type, in various states of 
commixture with the bearded, where the tokens of degradation, 
or of inferiority, passed away with even greater rapidity, but 
less durable results ; and though the stature remained the 
same, the marked difference of color proved the descent from 
hybrids, who, like the true Negro type, possess the perceptive 
and imaginative faculties in greater proportion than the more 
enduring reflective powers ; whence the incapacity to advance 
bej^ond a certain limit in reasoning, civilization and empire, 
seems to follow. 

Taking, therefore this stem, with a view to have in the 
sequel only the pure Caucasians to examine, we place here 

THE ETHIOPIAN OR MELANIC STEM, 

such as it was marked out by the earliest writers of antiquity. 
Under this denomination, it is desirable to arrange the 
races sprung from a real or an apparent interunion between 
the woolly-haired and the bearded types, distinguished by black, 
curly, undulating, or lank hair ; a sufficient beard, with the feat- 
ures of a Caucasian form, partially and often supereminently 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 331 

displayed, having the same typical structure, and the color 
intensely black, only when local circumstances indicate those 
qualities to be so far accidental. It is distinct from the sub- 
typical Malay, and the intermediate ramifications derived from 
it, by well-marked characteristics, notwithstanding, excepting 
where there is reason to believe that the Malay stem is itself 
crossed with Indo-Caucasian tribes in the eastern provinces of 
India, and in a great part of the southern. Excepting that the 
ears, especially of the Malabars, and the upper Egyptians, 
stand somewhat higher, and that the legs are proportionably 
longer than is the case with either of the types, there are no 
very distinct characteristics immediately observable, though the 
mouth, lips and nose are full, the hands, fingers and toes 
broader and flatter, resembling the Negro form. The African 
Ethiop has the hair pendent in heavy close ringlets, and the 
black eyes are still larger, and more soft, than the Indian. 
Equal intermixture constitutes the usual Mulatto condition ; 
but, in the east, a much greater infusion of Caucasian blood 
does not very evidently clear the skin. Some of the lank- 
haired nations of India, as such bearing signs of more than 
semi-white descent, are, nevertheless, among the swarthiest of 
the whole. It has even affected old Portuguese colonists, and 
the ancient Jewish inhabitants of India ; neither, it must be 
confessed, having the least claim to purity of origin, but being 
a mixed progeny with low caste natives, themselves, as we 
have before stated, descendants of aboriginal Paharias, Bheels, 
Nagas, and with only a small admixture of nobler blood. Nev- 
ertheless, among these slave and outcast tribes, the chiefs have 
high aristocratic features, which are not unfrequent among 
their subjects. Whether the mucous membrane of the very 
dark tribes of Ethiopians, with lank hair, assumes the same 
appearance as that of Negroes, is not, so far as we have been 
able to learn, remarked; though, if this condition of melanism 
should not exist in them, it would produce a very valid argu- 
ment in favor of the assertion that the woolly-haired race is of 



332 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

a distinct origin. There cannot be, however, a doubt that in 
the Mulatto state, or half-bred Caucasians, that peculiar struc- 
ture of the skin must be in part remaining-, since, in the charac- 
ter of the hair, we find it in proportion of the bearded parentage ; 
the frizzled and mop-like character passes into spiral curls, 
then undulates, and, at last, is wholly straight, while, in 
descending the scale, the mop becomes crisp, and returns to 
that low state of humanity, which, in the warm regions of the 
east, was branded with the reproach of being accursed. From 
this imputation, indeed, the more physically elevated real 
Ethiopians were not exempted. In the Sacred Scriptures, 
with perhaps some exceptions, Chna and Egypt were so 
branded to the promulgation of the Christian dispensation. 
The hatred incurred by the race of Cham or Ham was, indeed, 
repeated in the north, by the same pure Caucasian stock, 
towards the Hyperborean, if we may take the earliest Finnic 
Tschutski to have been the first miners, and, perhaps, the 
Tubal Cain of the Pentateuch ; for obloquy pursued both, 
although for ages they were mixed races, and long the deposi- 
tories of the dawnings of civilization, though not the first to 
organize human progress. 

Kaces of mixed Caucasians, afterwards known as Joktanites, 
Indo-Arabs, and Semitics, descended the west bank of the 
Indus, and, from the remotest period, secured the whole Sulei- 
man ic range, and at this time already fixed upon the culmi- 
nating point of Takt-y-Suleiman, or, rather, Arawati, the 
mountain of the dove, or the ship, for their first remove of the 
Arkite reminiscence from its original centre.^ They left the 
purer Papuas scattered westward, or drove them onward till 
one of its tribes constituted the Negro races, with a taint of the 

* The Arawati and Aryawart mountains are, perhaps, higher up in 
Asia, and the real locality of the diluvian record; But the Parveti Mon- 
tes of Ptolemy, so named from the Sanscrit Parvat, a dove, is Suleiman 
Koh, 12,831 feet high, still noted for the abundance of different species 
of doves. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 333 

white stock forming the most western branches, such as the 
ancient Numidian, and present Caffres and Gallas. 

In consequence of the deep-rooted hatred of the Caucasian 
races towards the typical Negro, we find those frequent allu- 
sions to purity of blood in the Arabian clans of the desert. It 
is the whole question whereon the poem of Antar hinges ; for 
color alone is not the cause, since Bedoween tribes are, in 
many instances, exceedingly dark, from the Euphrates to the 
west coast of Morocco ; and the Tarikh Tebry endeavors to 
account for it in the legend, which relates how the ancient 
Arabians were fair and blue-eyed, but so wicked that they 
would not hearken to the prophet Salah. Miraculous omens 
had no effect, until, at last, they were converted, in one day, 
from white to red, and, in the next, to black. This tale may 
be the reminiscence of Scythian inroads and conquest, such as 
were effected by the giants of the Pentateuch, who, inferior in 
number, were gradually absorbed by the predominant race ; and, 
though masters (for the master race, in Oriental relations, is, 
in general, the only object of record), became dark in their 
descent, and were mostly driven across the Red Sea. The 
northern infusion was repeated more than once ; and, besides 
Egyptian history, we have the Geta and Arabians confounded 
by classical writers, as we shall notice in the sequel. 

The Cushites^ of antiquity, confounded in many cases with 
the Joktanites, correspond, with scarce an exception, to the 
Ethiopians, as we here notice them : the regions of Cusha 
Dwipa within, and Cusha Dwipa without, of Hindoo geography, 
exactly represent Asiatic and African Ethiopia ; and the names 
of Itiopiaivan and Itiopia, by which the Abyssinians still desig- 

* Chus, Cush, Cuth, according to Jacob Bryant and Hoi well, is derived 
from cushet, a bow, still the chief weapon of all the wild mountain races 
of India, the instrument they used to achieve the death of opposing demi- 
gods, and, till lately, arming them as the guards of rajahs and princes, 
who took them into their service. Goosch, in India, still denotes a 
robber. 



S34 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

nate themselves and their country, notwithstanding all dis- 
claimers to the contrary, denote, like the Arabian term Habesk^ 
for the same state, a mixed people, with perfect correctness, for 
they were the first semi-Caucasian invaders of Arabia, Cush- 
ites, Semitic races from the Suleimanic range of the western 
border of the Indus. Fair tribes, from more northern high 
lands of Asia, mixed with Indian Nishadas, or with the local 
Nimreks of the soil, were already a very compounded race in 
Elam, before they were driven across the Straits of Babelman- 
deb. They had, even then, the elements of science and civili- 
zation imparted to them, by the giant invaders of western 
Asia, or by Gomerians, high on the Indus ; for, to this day, tra- 
ditions, customs, and opinions, prevalent in Abyssinia, bear 
evidence to the fact. Later colonists passed, no doubt, the 
same straits, for a considerable influx from the west of Asia is 
evident in the languages still spoken along the east coast, even 
as far as the cape ; and the higher development of the Galla 
and Caffre tribes can be traced to a partial Semitic intermix- 
ture. The basis of civilization must have been communicated 
from indigenous progress, already developed in the peninsula 
of India, or by the more recent knowledge carried along with 
the conquests of pure Caucasians, in the regions of the Ganges, 
or in Elam (Persia), by other conquerors, but both appearing 
to derive their acquirements from some common source in the 
upper valley of the Oxus. 

The original formation of the Ethiopian stem appears to 
have been in the burning alluvial deposits formed by the Indus, 
and along the southern foot of the Himalayas, on the Hel- 
mund, the Kabul, in Cashmeer, and the Punjaub, where Cau- 
casian tribes, seeking warmer regions, encountered the black 
races, and, by conquest and slavery, commenced amalgamation, 
which every new wave of invaders conduced to increase. Fur- 
ther immigration to the plains of India naturally followed, 
through the secondary ranges of the mountain chains, or they 
crossed over from the high land of Thibet. That the move- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 835 

merit was, in a great part, from north-west to south-east, is 
proved by the presence of Gangarides in the valley of the 
Bramaputra, where, in other respects, the foreign element in 
the jEirst population was eastern Caucasian or Malay. Who 
the bearded tribes were that originally spread over China, was 
sufficiently shown in the notice of the Mongolic and Finnic 
nations not to be again repeated, although we have, on the 
south of Asia, nations similarly constituted, but further debased 
by certain Papua intermixtures, and all feel the different influ- 
ence of a southern, and, often, a marine climate. 

The infusion of northern elements is strikingly proved by 
the predominating presence of Sanscrit in all the dialects of 
India, although variously debased by forms of speech of indige- 
nous origin, Parbatyia, Naja, Dravira, Bheel, Nishada, and 
Yadhu, &c., upon which it was ingrafted. As the invaders 
came through the gorges of the mountains in successive 
swarms, and not always from the same point, they subjugated 
not only the black aborigines, but also the mixed tribes of their 
former conquerors, leaving only that portion in freedom which 
could retreat to inaccessible mountain districts, to recede from 
the civilization they might have had before their political ruin, 
and either pure or already under the rule of masters not of the 
kindred stock. The older invaders seem to have been denomi- 
nated Chasas, equivalent to the western term Asi, or Asen, high- 
landers, which is also the meaning of Guras. They came, more 
particularly, from the southern side of Hindu Koh and Paropa- 
misus, in their last debased condition, constituting the Indo-Arab 
races, but here almost universally become true Ethiopians and 
Cushites, by union with nations still more melanic, and who 
formed the great majority of the population. Other mountain 
conquerors first came to the south by descending the passes of 
Thibet, leading to the high basin of Cashmeer, where the name 
of the capital being Nagara before it became Caspatyrus, sup- 
poses the population to have been Naga, and of the same stock 
with that of the lower Indus, where the name was likewise 



336 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

given to a city, a Heliopolis, as Strabo asserts, where the 
snake worship was then, as it still is, in existence in Cutch.^ 
This very degrading worship was not inconsistent with the 
idolatrous sacrifice to the giant divinity Muhishan, whose 
statues have a serpent wound about the loins, and whose 
legend is of so ancient and peculiar a character, that he may 
be regarded as a solar god among the aboriginal tribes, he 
alone riding his war buffalo in battle against Durga, and, 
therefore, the supreme type of indigenous power before the 
horse was known in the peninsula of India.! That this 
divinity was, by Hindu, Arab, or Cushite invention, converted 
to Kali, is evident by the similarity of Moloch, in Syria, with 
both ; and, by the retreat of Mahades, another form of the same, 
to the mountains of Kylas, when in danger from the assaults 
of Ravan, is shown that his worship was not then admitted in 
southern India. 

Notwithstanding the repeated contradictions and dualisms 
of all the Indian mythological compositions, there are to be 
found shadowy pictures of historical events in the great San- 
scrit poems still extant; for although even the oldest were 
written many ages after the transactions to which they refer, 
probably by men who had no circumstantial traditions, and 
were more imbued with the marvellous and imaginative to 
form mythological themes, according to poetical formulae, than 

* Cutch and Gujrat may both be connected with the Cuthite race, and 
fit localities for migrators by sea ; for from Diu, in Cutch, Gama 
despatched the open boat that conveyed the intelligence of his arrival in 
India. It went round the cape, and arrived safe at Lisbon. Nearchus 
went from Kurrachee. 

t We have before mentioned the figure of a Rajah riding his war-ox, 
and the almost Ethiopian Caffres of Africa mounted on them, to a recent 
period. It is probable that Hannibal derived from his Elhiop Numidian 
companions the celebrated stratagem, when, by means of oxen with com- 
bustibles burning on their horns, he puzzled the Romans, and extricated 
himself from a difficult position. It may be remarked, that the Black 
Muhishan is opposed to Durga, a divinity of the invading mountaineers. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 337 

to draw up historical documents ; still there are casual glimpses 
of facts, fixing certain geographical data, and a general current 
of events, which reveals many truths, though the dates, the 
persons, and circumstances, may be nearly all fabulous. 
Among the Sanscrit poems, beside the Puranas, there are the 
Mahabarata and the Ramayana, particularly available to form 
approximate notions on the earliest history of India, and the 
composition of nations it still contains. Though the substance 
of the first is said to be fifteen, and of the second thirteen 
centuries older than the Christian era, it will be safer to con- 
sider both as referring to events at least as ancient, while the 
poetical views of the compositions, exclusive of episodes, such 
as the deluge, &c., are evidently centuries later, and in all 
cases refer to dates subsequent . to the first invasions of the 
Caucasian Man, though not to the total subjection of the 
Indian peninsula to his conquests. We take the Ramayana to 
be the later, in point of composition, in the form it now appears, 
as shadowing forth the remotest known conditions which 
affected the two typical stocks in southern Asia. The subject 
matter is so grand and exciting, that Valmiki's 24,000 slokas, 
or distiches, are not the only though the most complete elabo- 
ration of the theme now extant ; for there is another ascribed 
to Vyazudavu, and three or four more, of which that by Bod- 
hyana is said to be replete with splendid passages. All relate 
to the actions of Rama, the hero divinity belonging to the first 
known dynasty of the kings of Oude, at a time when it does 
not appear that the other sovereignties of the peninsula were, 
as yet, in possession of the conquering bearded races. The 
Nishada, Vidantha, Naga states, the kingdom of Kapila, at 
Hurdwar, on the Ganges, &c., were in the hands of indigenous 
tribes, and Lanka Dwipa was the abode of demons.^ Some, 

* We have not had access to Ward's History of the Hindoos, and, 

therefore, cannot judge of the view which that learned scholar takes of 

the primaeval period. It is, however, a subject of regret, that not more 

Sanscrit documents have been published, and that what is before the pub- 

29 



838 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

like the Rana ot the Jaitwar tribe, claiming to be descended 
from the monkey hero Hanuman, and pretending to have a 
prolongation of the spine in proof of the fact, shows at least that 
certain families, of whatever origin they may be derived, still 
wish to pass for descendants of aboriginal tribes. In the north- 
west of India, and east of Persia, Shombho, Nishombho, Muhi- 
shan, Tarika, Durga, and Ravan of Ceylon, are indigenous 
giants of tradition, in all probability personifications of states, 
and of repeated wars by Papua tribes against invaders from 
the high mountains. The persevering nature of the contest 
may be gathered from the circumstance, that although all were 
for many ages ruled by chiefs of mixed origin, their final sub- 
jugation was not accomplished till the Mahommedan conquest. 
In the usual dualism of mythology and history, we find 
Rama, the son of Budha, and grandson of Mem, child of the 
sun, abiding in his holy mountain, west of Kaubul, probably 
Indo-Koosh.^ Bali-Rama, the hero son of Desaratha, or of a 
tribe so denominated, being accompanied by Jumont (bears), 
Hanuman, monkeys and other wild beasts constituting his 
army, came down the Cabul river, across the Indus and Pun- 
jaub, established or found already formed the kingdom of 
Ayodhya, now Oude. He with his brother Krishna vanquish 
Jara Sandha, king of Bahar. In these wars, the wild beasts, 
with the bear, evidently represent tribes from the high cold 
regions, while Hanuman, with his monkey army, are the aborig- 
inal race of the Vindhaya chain and lower districts, probably 

lie must be sought in many volumes, scattered through the literature of 
Europe. 

* Mythologically, the holy mountain may be Dhawalagiri, the highest 
mountain in the world, and in sight of the northern border of Oude, in 
•which case the Gogra, or more likely the gorge of the Gunduk, in long. 
88, may have been the route followed from Thibet by Rama. The pass is 
still frequented ; but one was more certainly from the north-west, and then, 
with a tribe from Balk, the march was necessarily by the passes of Kohi- 
baba. Yet the Hindo-Mongoli dialect shows that at least a conquering 
people came down Himalaya, by the pass of the Goomty. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 389 

Bheels ; for Bhil, the god or native prince of this people, slew 
Krishna with an arrow; and in another my thus likewise killed 
Heri, one of the Pandoo brethren. Defeated or expelled his 
conquest, Bali-Rama is related to have been an exile from 
Oude, wandering with his wife Sita, who, being carried off by 
the giant Ravan, king of Lanka, originated the war with the 
Eakhshasas, cannibal giants, in Ceylon. After great opposi- 
tion, the insular defence is surmounted by the bridge which 
Hanuman makes of mountains to unite the island to the con- 
tinent ; and although Rama himself is at one time captured by 
the Cauravas, the hero divinity and Sita are both released, 
Ravan slain, and the powers he ruled destroyed. There is in 
this my thus a religious war indicated, as well as a war of 
races ; the victory is evidently indecisive, since the conqueror 
returns to northern India, and afterwards reigns in Oude. In. 
this great and brilliant poem is the first notice of the people of 
Balkh, in Transoxiana, under the name of Bahlikas. They 
are represented as a kind of fairy philosophers, residing in the 
holy mountain, or sacred centre of religion ; still bearing a cer- 
tain resemblance to the revered and wise Scythians of the 
Greek poets. 

In the second period we have no longer wars of entirely dis- 
tinct human stems, or at most with only the partial adhesions 
of the Naga races to the invaders ; they became wars of inva- 
sion upon predecessors, or intestine conflicts among tribes 
equally mixed. The Mahabarata mythologizes the worldly 
interests of these nations into religious struggles between the 
Pandoos and Kurus or Cauravas, the children of the moon and 
the sun ; which may be interpreted by the Celtic, or followers 
of a lunar arkite doctrine, opposed to the Semitic or solar wor- 
ship, which belonged more probably to the people of the south. 
The Pandoo brethren appear to be Gomerian Celtse, sons of 
Pandu and of Coonti, a princess of Mathura, sister of Heri and 
Baldiva, the Indian Hercules. Coonti had, by several gods, 
Yudistra, Bhima, Arjoon, Nycula, and Sydiva, all clearly his- 



340 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

torical heroes or tribes, enveloped in mythological and allegori- 
cal forms ; but the mythological circumstances being a parallel 
of the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman, they are necessarily older 
than the ages of Bali-Rama, or of the Pandoo brethren.^ They 
are all importations from Balkh, modified in each region by 
local ingredients. The historical Pandoos are first placed 
geographically beneath Cashmere, in the hill country north of 
Lahore, or, as others relate, the Pandian Raij was on the bor- 
ders of the Jumna, with a tribe named Bahikas among them ; 
after their migration and wars in the south, they are established 
in the Gomerian Celtic state, the present Carnatic, with Madura 
for its capital. It is in this vicinity that frequent cromlechs, 
locally denominated Pandoo Coolies, are to be found ; and they 
exist likewise near Bombay, where the caverns of Salsette, like 
those of Elora (Yeroola), confirm that the Pandya tribes, like 
Rama, originally came from beyond the Indus, and carried on 
a religious war of conquest against nations who had a solar 
worship. That they penetrated to Ceylon, may be surmised 
from several striking coincidences in the oldest legends of the 
island, when compared with the ancient western tales ascribed 
by Welsh poets to the Druids. The significant prefix, Tre or 
Ter, joined to to\vns and places, is even now as frequent on the 
main land, and in the islands, as it is in the Celtic provinces 
of Britain or France.! If Krishna, the blackener, a designa- 

* It may be observed that the Pandoos are children of the watery ele- 
ment. Coonti is a native of the locality where the Indian delug-e took 
place ; Heri and Baldiva are solar personages, and the land oi their birth 
is still marked by numerous cromlechs. 

t Compare the Ceylonese legends in Upham, with the Celtic tale of 
Iseult and Tristrcm, where the dog with three difleront colored spots, red, 
blue, and green, represents the candidate for orders in bardic druidism ; 
and the five colors of the Hibernian are similarly typified by dogs in the 
mystical language of the initiated. We name here a few localities, bear- 
ing the prefix ter, tre, tir ; Travancore State, Terepuney, Teruwalla, Tri- 
vandrum, on the west coast; Trichindoor, Tirun, Tiripauramun, Teroomun- 
galum, Teruchooly, Tcrumboor, Tripatoor, Teruvunpette, Trinchinopoly, 
Tiruvalur, Tranquebar, Trinchingode, Tircoiloor, Triomalle, Tirovady, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 841 

tion of the sun, likewise connected with the Pandoo mythus, 
have a historical basis, approximating, though probably still 
earlier than 1350 years before our era, it marks the period of 
the Helio-Arkite superaddition to the most ancient northern. 
Caucasian system of a trinal supreme godhead, the Indian 
Trimurthi,^ one not unknown to the Celtae of western Europe, 
but where it succeeded the Helio-Arkite doctrines, or combined 
with them, as was also the case in India, where Vishnou is the 
Arkite savior, and belongs to a mythus more appropriately 
ascribed to Gomerian Pandoos than to any other race east of 
the Indus. To them also may belong the Gomerian practice 
of wives becoming common to a whole family of males, such 
as still obtains in the mountain parts of the peninsula, in the 
Suleimanic range, west of the Indus, in Hindu Koh. It was, 
in a more refined form, a dogma of the Hebrews, was not 
unknown to the Britons, and put in practice by the Pandoos. 

In this view, the Pandoo invasion of the lower peninsula 
appears certainly to be more remote than four centuries B. C, 
and precedes even the ten assigned to it by the great authority 
of Professor Wilson ; for, in that case, the Gomerian Celtse of 
the west would have reached their destination long before the 
arrival of their kindred in the south ; a region so much nearer 
to the common point of departure. Were either of the above 
admitted, it would subvert the natural connection evidently 
existing between the east and west, and leave the source of a 
variety of ideas, opinions, and usages, common to them, totally 
inexplicable. They extend even to Abyssinia, where the death- 
wail, and many other usages, are similar to the Irish, and both 
are unquestionably derived from the far east. If the westward 
migration of these Hindoo Ethiop tribes were traced to its 
origin, we might refer one of them as a likely consequence of 

Tripasson, Trivelore, to Trivalore, on the north of Madras, all in the 
Carnalic, and Trincomallee, Tricoville, Tirrach, &c., in Ceylon, 

* The same as Triemathur, on the north, Pendoran of the British, and 
even Taregatanga of the Peruvians. 

29^ 



842 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

the severe civil war wherein a part of the Pandoos were 
worsted. Colonel Todd, in his Rajahstan, points out the plains 
of Caggar and Surawati, where the decisive conflicts took place, 
when the fifty-six Yadhu tribes were at length broken, and 
departed with Ardjoon and Bhima to unknown regions. We 
find, in other mythical tales, the Asuras or Ashurs=^ eminently 
religious and virtuous, according to the doctrines of the Vedas, 
and therefore invincible, even by their gods, till the jealousy of 
Vishnou suggests the expedient of preaching, in the fonn of 
Budha, tenets still more humane ; which, being adopted by the 
Asuras, causes them to fall from the true religion ; thence 
become liable to defeat, and accordingly they are vanquished ; 
that is, the Brahman interest caused a religious war against 
the Budha doctrines, admitted to be more humane than the 
Vedanta ; a fact well known to be historical, though here 
clothed in a mythic garb. Although the Asuras cannot be 
mistaken for Assyrians, they may, nevertheless, have been 
original Hasaures, Asii or Arii, the Indo-Germans of histoiy; 
for these have figured in northern India for many ages, some- 
times being taken for Indo-Scythians, at others for Hyatili ; 
and it was probably this last swarm of invaders which de- 
stroyed the city of Valhabi in Gujrat, about the year 524 of 
our era. The ravages of conquest, ended in this latter case, 
were of temporary influence. The Rajpoots and Catties 
(CuthoDi), who were themselves only predecessors of the Indo- 
Scythae in the north-west of India, recovered their power on 
the east side of the Indus, and still show the blood of High 
Asia in their stature and color, even to the extent of gray eyes 
and light-colored hair, observable in some families; though, in 
general, they have high Arab or rather Hebrew features. Per- 

* Here the Asi are admitted to be wise and virtuous. They came from 
the same region as the Bahlika priesthood ; were terrible in war, typified 
by their monster heads, and were, perhaps, the Arai or Mahratta colonists. 
The Asuras were sons of Diti, wife of Kasyapa ; which again gives a 
mountain origin to these Titans. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 843 

haps the Sixth Avatar, where it is related that Vishnou, in the 
form of Parasha Rama, destroyed the Chetrie, Xeterie, or 
warrior caste, may signify that the Arkite Pandoo States were 
able to defeat the Rajpoots in their endeavors to penetrate into 
southern India. 

Soon after the period of Alexander's invasion, further dis- 
locations took place ; a portion of the Cuthai (Cathai), however, 
remained, but the Malli, it seems, were already driven to the 
southern Ghauts, probably by Arachosian or Affghan conquer- 
ors, who, for many ages, held sway from the sources of the 
Cophis or Cabul river, across the Indus, to the Hyphasis or 
Sutlej, and caused the Indian empire to be regarded as extend- 
ing westward to the confines of Persia. Most of the tribes, 
whose names occur in the histories of Alexander, and that can 
now be deciphered in Indian geography, are no longer in the 
plains, but form clans in this mountains. 

The variously mixed races from the north-west and north- 
east, with the aboriginal Papua tribes, can be traced by the 
deepening color of their skins towards the south, and by the 
greater remains of true Papua features, taking into account 
anomalies of circumstances. It is so, likewise, with the influx 
of Sanscrit ; becoming less prominent in the south, where Pali 
prevails, and it is also marked by the Brahmanic system of 
religion, the Vedanta creed becoming more and more modified 
by other idolatries, and by the Budha doctrines taking refuge 
in Ceylon, where it appears to have incorporated a whole native 
demonolatry. This last religious institution was, with its Naga 
worship, no doubt, established during the period when the 
peninsula of India was still in the power of the Papua tribes, 
and was sufficiently exciting to have been carried westward, 
not only by migrating Negroes, but also by the Ethiopic Stem, 
by Mongols, and even Gomerians, in their progress to Europe. 
India being at that early period a scene of conflict, the invaders 
found sovereignties either already established, or formed them 
by degrees, as their irruptions became permanent. In the 



844 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

north-east, the Euro-Caucasians established on the left of the 
Ganges the state of Tirhut; Canya Cubja occupied the upper 
parts of the river. Sereswati, the present Punjaub and Utkala 
contained the greater part of Bengal, On the south and west 
there arose Gujara, Rushtra, or Gujrat, Patala on the Lower 
Indus, with other kingdoms already named. Khandeish, fur- 
ther to the south, Mura, or kingdom of Mahrustra, now Mah- 
ratta State, subdued, perhaps, by Arii or Arai, in the centre, 
with the Dekhan and Kanara, on the extreme point of the 
peninsula. But sanguinary and protracted wars alone permit- 
ted the white races to become dominant and to effect a gradual 
intermixture. 

Wars, producing total subjugation, by one race over another, 
bear the character of extermination ; they necessitate the weaker 
party to seek safety in flight and migration : nor is the result 
very different where the races are already partially intermixed, 
for then a ruling caste, descended from the last victors, is driven 
to the same course, or to total loss of all supremacy, unless the 
chances of the conflict are sufficiently chequered to cause the ear- 
lier and later invaders to coalesce by compromise. Now, if the 
Pandoo heroes, with Ardjoon and Bhimaat their head, departed 
after the defeat of the Yadhu tribes, there is little doubt that 
the direction of their retreat was westward, and constituted 
one of those migrations of the Asiatic Ethiop race, which was 
afterwards conspicuous in southern Persia, as a portion of the 
so-called Indo-Arabs, who were ultimately driven from Yemen, 
and passed to Abyssinia, or formed the Cushite people of Afri- 
can Ethiopia.^^ Tribes of this class were most assuredly the 

* If Nimrod, as is asserted, was a Cuthite king, ruling from the first 
in Assyria, the Babel which preceded Babylon was a city of Ethiopians, 
with Caucasian or Finnic rulers, probably the Gaurs, who seem to be iden- 
tical with the Gordei, who may still be represented by the Coords of the 
present day. Nineveh, &.C., were capitals of northern districts, but the 
resident population, between the Tigris and Euphrates, was Ethiopian ; 
since Mesopotamia, now Djezirat, was encompassed by the river. This cir- 
cumstance, and the swarthy Colchians of Herodotus, gives the northern 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 345 

element which formed the Aurite population of Upper Egypt, 
for they still retain peculiarities of structure observed in the 
present Malabars."^ Others, less swarthy, were colonists of 
Lower Egypt, constituting the Misr population, of whose 
progress we have already adduced proofs, by the plants and 
animals which they could not have possessed, but by depart- 
ing originally from High Asia, and, subsequently, from the 
vicinity of the upper Indus ; and the further progress they 
made is likewise to be traced by the symbolical lions in their 
sculptures being invariably maneless ; a character which marks 
the variety of that formidable animal existing only in the 
southern portions of ancient Sindh, Persia and Arabia ; while 
the typical species, if the symbol had been adopted from the 
African, would most assuredly have been figured with a huge 
mane. 

Some hordes had preceded them across the Nile, to form 
a portion of the Mauritanian and Nubian populations, which, 
we have already shown, were in part driven by the Arabs, at 
a later period, across the Sahara, to commix with the Negroes 
on the Gambia, and are now Poulas, Jaloffs, and Mandingos. 
Others departing by sea, probably from Ceylon, reached as far 
as Madagascar, where they found already the Ompizee canni- 
bals, while they formed themselves the tribes of black Malgash 
Voalzis, Ondeva of the present time. These were followed 
by Semitic clans of Indo-Arabs, whose kindred we have seen 
in the Australian Islands, and who, on the shores of eastern 
Africa, commenced, under the names of Joasmees and Jacal- 
vas, the same profession of pirates. These, in common with 
the Habesh, influenced the whole of the south with opinions 

limit of the Ethiopian extension, that is, as far as the boundaries of the 
date tree and the habitation of the ostrich. 

* Among others the large eyes and long legs, which may be the origin 
of the legend of the Macroceli, Tala-gangha, a tribe of ancient India ; 
but we think the present Catties of Kutch are descended from conquering 
Cathai of High Asia, giving the name, and forming the master tribe of 
the original Papua Aurites along the coast. 



346 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

and parts of speech ; and they modified the characteristic dis- 
tinctions of the Negro people "within contact, as is evident in 
the Caffre and Galla nations. 

There remain now only a few more remarks to make on the 
Ethiopic tribes in primaeval Arachosia, Aria, and Syria, simi- 
larly originating in commixture between Arab or Melanic Cau- 
casians and Papua races. They are traceable by the denomi- 
nations of Nimreks, Dombuks, and Kakasiah — the black 
brethren of ancient legends: and the antiquity of occupation 
in Western Asia is attested by the same documents ; for these 
races are stated in Arabian lore to be pre-Adamite, and the 
localities they held at one time are perhaps marked by the resi- 
dence of the black giant, Sukrage, one of the seventy-two Sul- 
tauns who reigned in Kaf before Argenk, another giant of 
tradition. Kaf,=^ an Arabian name for the great central table 
land of Asia, is here referred to a particular locality, perhaps 
the chain of Demavend, or one of the several peaks bearing 
the name of Alburs, or, rather, Kohi-Baba, where Argenk's 
palace is described to have been adorned with statues of mon- 
sters, endowed with reason, " such as existed in former crea- 
tions." There were pictures upon the walls relating to those 

* Neither Kondemir nor Mirkhond are the inventors of these traditions ; 
for Kaf was, in Arabian lore, a mountain, " enclosed like a ring surround- 
ing a finger," and " the sun rose and set from Kaf to Kaf." It denotes 
the high land of Asia. The Sakrat hinge of the world is Himalaya, and 
was the region wherein the deeve bird Simurg or Simorganka tells Temu- 
vah he had served forty Sultauns, his predecessors, and had seen the crea- 
tion renewed seven times. Kaf, when particularized in the Shah Nameh, 
is evidently Kohibaba, which, with its two passes, was best known among 
the elevated peaks on the western front of the great plateau ; and there it 
appears Zohauk is likewise fabled to have had his fastness, though another 
of the name is placed in the middle of Lake Zurrah. 

The number of seventy-two Sultauns, compared with the forty Solimans, 
indicate the priority of residence in easternmost Persia to have been on 
the side of the sable races. According to Arabian notions of geography, 
Kohi-Kaf is situated between the habitations of Iran and Ginnistan. 

"Taric Tebri." See also "d'Herbelot, in voce Soliman ben Daoud." 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 347 

times, poetical embellishments in the legend, which, since the 
late discoveries in the ruins of Nineveh, show that the narra- 
tions are drawn from buildings adorned with Andro-Sphinxes, 
Sirens, and Taurine monsters, similar to those of Persepolis. 
The locality may even be much more towards the north and 
east, since a sculptured sphinx has been discovered about the 
Altaic gold mines, and similar objects are frequent in the 
ruins of ancient cities about the river Amour, in Chinese Tar- 
tary. The name of Temendoun, a giant with one hundred 
arms, defeated by Kayomurs, first king of Persia, but who 
escaped and fled to Oman, in Arabia ; one more, named An- 
thalous (Antaeus), with a thousand arms, who was captured 
and sentenced to death by Soliman Ben Hakki, who could 
never accomplish his decree, indicate that they are reminis- 
cences of ancient legends, notwithstanding the evident plagia- 
risms from Greek fables and Hindoo relations, and that the 
color, the direction of the flight, and the indestructible charac- 
ter of these enemies, whose many arms imply the strength of 
their forces, and the region and antiquity of their occurrence. 
They are, moreover, countenanced by others, such as the ante- 
diluvian sovereigns Mahabad, "Father of mankind;" Biurasp, 
" King before the flood ;" and Gilshah, " The first man ;" 
all mythical records of the first Caucasian invasions from the 
high lands, and the wars they waged upon the black popula- 
tions in possession of the land. If the relation of Herodotus 
can be admitted, they were in his time not quite extinct in Col- 
chis. The evidence of their blood remains marked in the 
present Bedoueen Arabs ; it was unquestionable in the race of 
Ham in Chaldea and Syria ; in the Ethiopia of southern Per- 
sia, Persis, Chusistan, and Susiana ; in Arabia Deserta, from 
the southern coasts of the Indus to the Straits of Bab-el-Man- 
deb, and in Upper Egypt to Nubia and Cordofan. 

The Shah Nameh furnishes traces of their wars with the 
Iranians, and Asiatic Ethiopians are historically noticed in the 
time of Xerxes. The whole region, from Hindostan to Lybia, 



348 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

was anciently, and even is now by Orientals, frequently denomi- 
nated India. Like their ancestors, the population still forms 
a mixed race, having in general ruling families of a white 
origin; sometimes named Getos (Goths), Germanii of Kerman- 
shah. Strabo (lib. vii.) makes Pyrebestas (Abu Rebbia) rule 
the Getse. Ammianus calls Arabia the desert of the Getae ; 
and the Beni-Ghour (children of the swamp) are still regarded 
as a fair race, descended from that stock. 

It is in this territory, and adjoining Egypt, that in the ear- 
liest antiquity a very considerable civilization is detected, 
because the confluence of nations moving westward obliged 
concentration at the isthmus, in order to reach the lower Nile, 
and in this manner they became conversant with each other's 
discoveries in the arts of life, and saw the dawn of commerce 
opening by the mariners of Sidon. 

Whether the Imilikon, or Amalekites, were of the same 
mixed stem, does not clearly appear ; but that the Phoenicians, 
Panes, Fynes, so far as the master tribes are concerned, were 
Finns, is exceedingly probable, since a red-haired race neces- 
sarily must have come from the northern parts of Asia ; and 
if the language they spoke was in the historical era almost a 
pure Hebrew, the cause is easily discovered, since a white com- 
munity, of no great strength, had gradually increased to a 
series of cities, whereof the vast superiority of inhabitants were 
Semitics and southern strangers, who, from the period of the 
first conquest of Phoenicia, acquired political power ; whereas, 
until then, they had perhaps only possessed a certain preemi- 
nence in the refinements of civilization. The Phoenician power 
was lon<r settled before the arrival of the Hebrews in Pales- 
tine, and it was not regarded by them in the same light as the 
upland tribes of Canaan, since political and commercial alli- 
ance, and permanent peace, existed between the two states; 
conditions which could not have been maintained if the Punic 
race had not been of a very distinct origin from the Canaan- 
it€. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 349 



EGYPT. 

If the isthmus of the Eed Sea was already closed on the 
Mediterranean side, when the first human population came to 
the western shores of Asia, it may be assumed that the delta 
of the Nile was not yet so consolidated as to offer any firm 
footing beyond the sands on the beach ; while the marshy 
fens within them were, as yet, only beginning to form the pres- 
ent lower province. Gradually the valley was occupied, from 
the head of the first bifurcation of the river, up to the cataracts, 
by a population of very distinct origin, cemented together by 
causes not now accessible to investigation ; for here three 
nations, at least, adopted the same system of civilization, and 
amalgamated together from different sources of migration, 
elaborating a state religion, and peculiar social institutions, 
whatever difference there might be else in tribal speech and 
local doctrines. The oldest of these nations had been pushed 
up the river by succeeding immigrations, and was of true 
Ethiopic character, Indo-Arab, deb or black, and since known 
by the names of Aurites, or Abarites. It was apparently com- 
posed of tribes expelled the coast of Malabar, and distinguished 
by the more elevated position of the ears, by large dark eyes, 
strong curly hair, long legs, thick lips, and very swarthy color: 
the second, a brown race, with lank hair, were the Misr, or 
Mestrai (Misraim of antiquity), said to have been led by Masr ; 
but all these names indicate a mixed race, which both were ; 
and the third, governed by a fairer high-featured tribe of real 
Caucasians, were most likely the last comers, and in part a 
privileged body of conquerors ; they were, collectively, the 
Gouptas, Koptos, said to have followed the mythological 
Menes,^ who first nestled in the marshes of the delta, and 

* Menes, the same as Manu, who binds the ark to the peak of Hima- 
Tahn ; and Meru, whose holy mountain was west of Cabul, near Bamean, 
and ancestor of Rama ; but it may be a name for Joktan. 

30 



350 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

most likely came by sea from Asia Minor. They obtained 
and kept the ruling power, the Pharaonic crown and priest- 
hood, for ages, in their hands, although they w^ere neither the 
authors of the civilization, nor of the religious doctrines of the 
land. The enormous army, with excessive privileges, main- 
tained by the state, and forces often called in from abroad, 
warrant this opinion. The conjecture is strengthened by the 
prohibition the government gave to all marine enterprise on 
the Red Sea, and the early and long continuance of suprem- 
acy it exercised over Syria ; and, finally, by the reminiscence 
of hostilities in High Asia, which prompted the greatest of the 
Egyptian kings to make repeated inroads as far as Bactria, 
though ever with ephemeral results. At length the sceptre 
passed from them to the Cushites, who, in time, were again 
subdued by new hordes of High Asia ; while the Cushite nation 
secured the coast of Abyssinia, Nubia, and Egypt, up to the 
Port of Aphrodite ; this was the Ethiopia of Africa, Thosh, or 
Etaush, and Kush, still called Kish in the country. Both the 
Cushite and Aurite people had Caucasian or white chiefs, since, 
even at this day, Dongola women are prized, because they are 
comparatively fair. Leaders, like the expelled Pandoos, led 
them, by coasting, till they crossed over from the Arabian side 
to the Egyptian. Coming from the Indus, the Aurites ascended 
still higher, to the head of the Red Sea, as we are expressly 
told by Syncellus. They passed by the Wadi Sendeli, still 
named Derb-Tuarikh, and thence spread from Memphis to 
Thebes ; for, had they been mere wanderers through deserts, 
their gods, in after ages, would not have been invariably placed 
in boats, nor would there have been, annually, a festival, when 
these idols were sent from below to visit others up the river, in 
splendid barges.=^ The origin of such a ceremony could only 

* Diluvian records abound with all the Caucasian and cognate races. 
There are, probably, more than one hundred fabulous legends, religious 
and mythical, where the patriarch and his family are designated under 
different names, circumstances, and localities. Even in Palestine, there 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 351 

be derived from a commemoration of their first landing, or 
their original departure from the east, confounded with a 
diluvian tradition; notwithstanding, that record is so deep 
rooted, that, even to this day, in Arabia, the Arabs do not call 
out an army, where many tribes are collected, without bearing 
at the head of it a reminiscence of the ark, in the shape of a 
wooden frame, placed on the back of a strong camel, and 
adorned with ostrich feathers, which the}^ call Merkeb (the 
ship). 

The styles of sculpture, architecture, and excavation, not- 
withstanding the remote period of their origin, have more 
affinity to the Bactrian Hindoo than to any other colossal, 
ponderous detail ; such as a compound of what remains of 
Nineveh and the earliest cavern temples would produce, 
showing traces of the natural development of art, when work- 
ing upon the same kind of materials with similar means. The 
statues retain the normal pillar form in all ; but the parts of 
architectural combination advanced beyond mere excavation, 
as it still was in the most ancient cavern temples of India ; not 
so complete and less appropriate than the Egyptian, indicating 
an older date, though it was wielded in both regions by sacer- 
dotal supremacies over great populations. The system of wor- 
ship in Egypt was likewise allied to the Indian, though both, 
no doubt, had their revolutions, innovations, and successive 
incorporations of foreign elements. British sepoys, forming 
part of the expedition that was to cooperate with General Sir 
Ralph Abercrombie in the re-conquest of Egypt, no sooner 
entered the ancient temples in the valley of the Nile, than 
they asserted their own divinities were discovered on the 
walls, and worshipped them accordingly. They even pointed 

were four or five, all greatly distorted from the true narrative in the Pen- 
tateuch. One or other of these Indian migrators revived the Neel of 
India in the Nile of Africa ; for, unless the notion had begun in Egypt, 
all antiquity, to the time of Alexander, would not have been led to believe 
that the African stream had its source in India. 



352 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

out the Cresvaminam, or Brahmin distinguishing cord, as like- 
wise a decoration of the painted divinities. 

Few traces of Aramean or Japetian languages are percepti- 
ble in the constituents of the ancient Egyptian and modern 
Copthic. The Hebrew and Arabic are comparatively of recent 
introduction. Originally the Egyptian form was monosyllabic, 
essentially different from both, though the Canaanite nations 
of the same stock spoke a dialect of Chaldee, which in itself 
appears to be an evanescent tongue, and might have been pre- 
ceded in Syria by a different form, as it was subsequently suc- 
ceeded by others, since geographical localities of ancient Pales- 
tine were constantly indicated by two very different denomina- 
tions. The Egyptian, no doubt, consisted of a sacred dialect; 
one which was used in all v/ritten documents, sacred and legal, 
while very diverging forms of speech belonged to different parts 
of the kingdom. There was, particularly, one in the Delta, 
another in Upper Egypt, and most likely the Cuthic above the 
cataracts. Uch and Pharaoth, the most ancient words for king, 
may nevertheless be both epithets, the first denoting high, 
eminent;^ and the second, a mutation of Phre or Phra, recurs 
in the Pelhevic proper names of ancient Persia, where it desig- 
nates command or leadership ; while in Egypt the same word 
seems to have been appropriated to the sun, to exaltation and 
beauty, in which sense it is equivalent to the Theotisk Frai, 
Norsk Fager, handsome. Goshen or Goshan, in Egypt, and 
Gauzan in Mesopotamia, do not denote a temple of the sun, 
but literally the cow-land, the cattle-country. 

The Delta was most probably designated in Eg^'ptian by the 
name of Rab, since in Hebrew it was called Rahab. For ages 
it gave shelter to pirates and roving clans, which, when they 
had remained fixed during a certain period, had no means of 

* Uch. See Manetho. It may be remarked, that there was a tribe of 
Uchii cast of Persis proper, and that it was, according to Volaterauus, 
from among this people the gypsey tribes first came forth. Uchii were, 
therefore. Highlanders. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 853 

resuming their marine course of life, because wood for rafts 
and vessels was always scarce or wanting-, the tall reeds and 
rushes suffering none except the palm-tree to flourish. This 
was the cause, it may be believed, why the Kapthorim, after 
leaving Kapthor or Cappadocia, wandering onwards by Rhodes, 
Crete, and Cyprus, till they rested for a period in the Tanitic 
arm of the Nile, were obliged to migrate by land to Palestine. 
There were also the Sinim and Phoenicians in the western 
arm, and Greek adventurers on the bank near Damietta ; 
others, most likely, were absorbed in the Egyptian people, or 
passed onward to the west. Several of these tribes are, by 
classical authorities, placed in connection with the Hyper- 
boreans, or rather the Finnic races, a branch of which may 
have been the Hyksos (or Shepherds), with the more proba- 
bility, as the earliest Armenian language is known to have 
contained a great proportion of words belonging to that stem of 
nations, and the Armenian people were styled Haikos or Haik 
wearers, which is the same as Hyksos. They are even made 
to be the same as the Cathai, Beni Kous, who may have been 
the Kufa of High A.sia opposed to Sesostris, the fair-haired 
nation of the ancient Arabian records, and the present 
Nesearies of the hills ; so early were the invasions from the 
north-east towards Egypt, and so confused become nations 
when the ruling tribe and the masses are of different typical 
forms. 

Above the Egyptian races, the Nubian, Nuba, or swarthy 
Cushite people, were fixed at a remote age, though Syncellus 
and their own traditions represent them to be colonists from 
the banks of the Indus ; and the claim is countenanced by the 
local names of Kutch, Gujerat, Cattywar, provinces on the 
east side of the present delta of the river ; and the circum- 
stance, that the Abyssinian kings were, and still are, styled 
Nagas, while in the most ancient kingdoms of the delta of the 
Indus or Neel, denominated Patala, the Naga or Serpent was 
venerated in the capital Nagara, and the people were Nagas. 
30=^ 



354 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Tribes of Cushites had fought their way by sea or by land, 
and formed a great power in Arabia Felix, till the present 
Arabians compelled them to cross the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb. 
They returned, however, more than once, to hold dominion 
in Yemen, carrying the first cofFee-plant with them from 
Africa, and continuing to hold up the commercial prosperity of 
the country to the time of the Hegira. Since the decline of 
the Abyssinian empire, subordinate kings still retain the 
ancient title; such, for instance, as that of Bahar Negash, or 
king of the plain, &c.^ The Nubian people are of the same 
origin, mixed with Arabs of the Rebiah tribe about Ibrim, and 
more pure from thence to Tinareh in the hills. It was from 
this region (Etaush) that queens, denominated Candace, became 
historical personages ;t and the case of the eunuch baptized 
by the apostle Philip, shows that the Hebrew Scriptures were 
studied before the advent, even as far up as Abyssinia, and 
that persons of the progeny of Ham came up to Jerusalem to 
worship. 

To trust solely in the linguistic character of nations, where 
slaver}'-, polygamy, and where barter and violence alike daily 
interchange crowds of captives, is at best unsafe ; all unwritten 
dialects, and even permanent nationality, become dubious ; 
consequently manners are greatly varied with the circum- 
stances of existence. 

* Apophis, supposed to be the Pharaoh visited by Abraham, may have 
been a Naga king in Lower Egj'^pt, as his name is synonymous with 
Python. If he were the Apophis slain by Horus, we would have an 
approximate date for the known system of Egj'ptian religion. 

t Candace does not appear to have been a proper name, but a title, per- 
haps a mutation of Khan or Kong. In that case, Thosh or Taush would 
denote tusk. Etaush, the land of ivory, which would again indicate the 
ruling power to have originated in a northern or high mountain race of 
conquerors. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 355 



THE ATLANTICS OR BERBERS. 

On the north of Africa many wanderers landed from the sea, 
and migrators from the valley of the Nile were pushed onwards 
over the Nubian high land. 



THE NUMIDIANS. 

One of these seems to have reached that region rather 
late, if they already possessed horses at the time of their 
arrival and were the Numidians of Roman history, cele- 
brated for the small and active horses which the warriors 
rode without saddle or bridle, guiding them with a rod, 
or at best with a rope passed round the lower jaw. But 
we take them to have been a distinct and later invasion, 
and sufficiently evanescent to have passed away into Negro 
tribes, since the supremacy of the Arabians became estab- 
-lished. 



THE AMAZIGH, 

Or Berbers, properly so called, extending from the Nile to 
the Atlantic, are now, under the name of Shelluhs, most 
numerous in the glens of Atlas, where they occupy villages in 
the south and east of Morocco, with habits not totally lawless 
nor inhospitable. But several of the tribes differ greatly from 
them, such as the Errifi of the province of Rif, who are among 
the most ferocious of human beings, and the Kabyles, Koubals, 
tribes speaking the Showiah language, which is believed to 
contain a considerable quantity of Numidian roots. There 
are other Berber tribes, that are miners, and manufacturers of 
gun-powder, gun-barrels, knives, black soap, &c. These are 
again referred to the Numidian people, passing gradually 



356 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

into the Poulah and Jaloffs, who, alone among the Negroes, 
have horses and camels. 



THE SUAKIM. 

East and south of the Nile this great stem seems to pass 
into Suakim troglodytes, who are referred to the ancient 
Kahtan Arabs, black by blood, which, if it be correctly viewed, 
the filiation of this branch of the Ethiopian stem is marked 
out from beyond the Indus to the west coast of Morocco. 
To the troglodyte race belong the Ababde, mistaken for Arabs, 
though they have the Negro mouth and color, occupying a 
great space between the Red Sea and the Nile. They are 
conductors of caravans from Sennaar, and spoken of with 
approbation. 

The Gomera, a relic of an almost extinct and unknown 
people, still occupy a portion of the district of Rif in Morocco, 
living in harmony with the , Shelluhs, and possibly descended 
from those marine Celts, who, in early ages, came down the' 
coasts of Africa, where they left the cairns, peulvaiis, and 
cromlechs, which the Romans at more than one place called 
PhilcBnian altars, particularly those found near Cyrene, and on 
the salt lake ; and there is another, distinguished by the name 
of El-Uted (the Peg), still existing on the Aguache river, in 
Barbary. It is perhaps also this tribe of Gomera who speak a 
Celtic dialect, said to be still intelligible to Welsh seamen, and 
asserted to be likewise understood on the south-west coast of 
Spain and Portugal. They are graziers; and it may be 
observed, that, in Sanscrit, Gomed denotes an ox ; Gomera, in 
this case, like Gvvalla in Asia, and Galla in Africa, being 
denominations for oxman, neatherd. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 357 



THE TUARIKHS. 



Though both the Tibboos and Tuarikhs are nearly pure 
Caucasians, we notice them here on account of the remote 
antiquity they claim, and the thrifty character they bear; the 
last mentioned, in particular, are habitually engaged in 
marauding to make slaves for sale, or in commercial transac- 
tions at annual fairs, and conducting caravans to the nations 
of Soudan, Bornou, and Timbuctoo. The language they 
speak is not Arabic, is as yet little known, the natives assert- 
ing it to be the most ancient in the world. If the Roman 
Numidians still retain a national existence, it is perhaps 
among these tribes that they should be sought. The Tibboos, 
residing in the middle of Negro tribes, between Fez and Bor- 
nou, are partly nomads, hospitable and moderate beyond all 
other tenants of the desert. 

We may place here the gypsy tribes, the Zingari, Zigeuner 
of Germany, Bohemians of the French, Karashu of Kurdistan, 
who, notwithstanding they speak a dialect of Hindoostan, and 
betray by their color a positive intermixture with Papua blood, 
have nevertheless the crania of Asiatic Finns, and are known 
to have dwelt among the southernmost tribes of that stem 
before they came towards the west. As they may have 
detected Finnic words in the Cophtic, since Klaproth discovered 
several in the ancient language of Egypt, there is some reason 
for the claim set up by these roving families for affinity with a 
Nilotic population, since they have a similar right to that of 
Persia and Bokhara, and kindred tribes are among the wan- 
derers of Northern Africa. They are, indeed, first observed to 
have traversed portions of Southern Tahtary. Some visited 
Armenia, Syria, and Egypt ; and others, about the year 1400, 
passed onwards through Poland to Bohemia, and finally 
extended to England and Spain. 

We have hitherto shown how typical and aberrant races of 



358 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

man have evidently proceeded eccentrically from the vicinity 
of the table land of High Asia, so far as the proceeding can be 
traced by geographical necessities, which in most cases have 
operated like positive laws, and are corroborated by history 
when human scripta have recorded the facts. Let us now see 
how the same conditions of Man's primaeval swarming can be 
traced in the great Caucasian type, of which the eventful 
career is so much better known than that of the preceding 
races. 



THE BEARDED, INTERMEDIATE, OR CAUCASIAN TYPE, 

Is so named, because neither of the two other typical 
forms is distinguished by a well-grown beard. Intermediate 
form is applicable with reference to the boreal and tropical 
position of the other types. The appellation of Caucasian 
remains likewise appropriate, when understood to apply to the 
Indian or true Caucasus, or Imaus of the ancients, for by these 
names the region of Hindu-Koosh and the vicinity must be 
understood; and it is to that locality careful examination ulti- 
mately traces the first habitation of at least the white races of 
the bearded stock ; ^ for the term white, though it is in general 
sufficiently correct, is still not quite admissible for the whole, 
since the color varies from pure white down to melanism 
nearly as deep as a genuine Negro. Albinism is frequent; 

* Caucasus of Western Asia is a name transferred with many others 
from the central region of the old continent. It seems to be derived from 
Koh-Cas, or Hindu-Koh, and includes, besides that region, also Paropa- 
missus, Emodus Imaus, or Western Himalaya, with numerous and 
elevated peaks, and the high lands of the Arii or Asii. Kohi-Baba, the 
apparently highest point of the whole, appears to be the local Kaf of 
Arabian traditioa. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. SS9 

and both the phenomena of an entire horny skin and of total 
hirsuteness seem to belong exclusively to the bearded type. 

It being to the form under consideration that the tribes class 
that have peopled Europe and Western Asia almost exclu- 
sively, its typical characters are easily ascertained. The 
beard is neither villous nor w^oolly, but spreading over the lips, 
chin, and the whole of the nether jaw. It fringes the sides of 
the face up to the temples, and is crisp, curly, or undulating, 
but never quite straight or lank, as in the Mongolian. The 
skull is larger than in the other forms ; it is oblong, rounded, 
with the cerebral portion more developed, containing from 75 
to 109 cubic inches ; the facial angle is more vertical, rising 
from 75 degrees to nearly 90. The face is oval, the eyes 
large, open, horizontal, the pupils passing from hazel or brown, 
on one hand, to dark, nearly black, and on the other to deep 
blue, gray, light blue, and even greenish (pink-colored pupils 
occur only in extreme cases of albinism) ; the hair is abundant 
on the head, curly, waving, or lank, varjdng in shades of colors 
from very deep brown to auburn, xanthous, and fiery red, usu- 
ally corresponding, but not always, to the beard and eyebrows, 
and sometimes from infancy marked with gray, which, in 
advancing life, in both sexes, is sure to come on, till the whole 
is turned white. In general, the hair harmonizes with the 
complexion, which varies, in the white races, from sallow to 
ruddy and fair. Health has its influence on the color of the 
skin, in all races ; but in the fair the cheeks are frequently 
colored ; the typical races have the mouth small, the teeth set 
vertically, the lips not tumid, and more delicately graceful in 
outline ; the nose is more prominent, and the wings less spread 
than in the other forms of man ; nor is the nether jaw so angu- 
lar. The forehead is broad, often high, the occipital part less 
developed, and the arch of the cranium less solid. 

Man of the bearded type attains the highest standard, is, in 
general, above the middle size, and in symmetry excels all the 
others ; the arms are in better proportion, the hands more beau- 



360 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

tifully shaped, and the feet and toes more delicate, and more 
obliquely arranged. His movements are more decisive of pur- 
pose, more graceful ; the poise of his head places the counte- 
nance vertically to the horizon.^ The shoulders are ample, 
the chest broad, the ribs firm, and the loins well turned ; the 
thighs, and, in particular, the calves of the legs, symmetrical ; 
the whole frame constructed for the endurance of every kind of 
toil, being protected in some measure with a partial growth of 
hair, which is scarcely traceable in the other types excepting 
on the chest. Thus he is constructed with physical powers 
equal to his intellectual organization, fitted to sustain protracted 
thought, — continuous attention, alike excited by an activity 
of disposition stimulating his brain, which is larger and more 
fully developed in the anterior portion than in any other form 
of Man. In the mere animal senses of sight, hearing, feeling, 
smell, and tasting, the social position of civilized nations may 
render them, in part, less quick, because they are less called 
into activity; but the Kaufir mountaineer of Hindu-Koosh, and 
the Arab wanderer, are, no doubt, equal, if not superior, to the 
acutest perception of Negro, American, or any other wild race 
in the world. Again, the Caucasian form of Man combines, 
above the rest, strength of limb with activity of motion, 
enabling it to endure the greatest vicissitudes of temperature 
in all climates, — to emigrate, colonize, and multiply in them, 

* A weight being placed on the head, such as when a Dutch milk-maid 
skates to market, the heavy pail is so poised upon a kind of pad, that it 
bears equally on the dome of the cranium ; so, also, is water carried by 
the abnormal Egyptian peasantry. In both, the weight rests on the per- 
pendicular axis of the body, through the centre of the skull ; whereas, in 
the Negro, weight on the head is always poised nearer the forehead, and, 
consequently, the chin is elevated. With the Mongolian and American, 
the strain appears to be downward, the muscles of the neck being rigid. 
Weight is carried, not on the shoulders, like a. Caucasian, nor on the 
head, like the woolly-haired races, but by a strap pressing against the 
forehead and passing to the back. True Caucasians trust to the shoulders 
and loins. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 361 

with the sole exception of the positive extremes. His longevity 
is more generally protracted, even in the midst of the enervating 
habits of high civilization ; his solid fibre gives a reasoned self- 
possession and daring in vicissitudes, arising from the passions, 
from accident, or from the elements ; and his reflective powers 
find expedients to brave danger with self-possession and 
impunity. 

The moral and intellectual character we find to be in unison 
with his structure : the reasoning powers outstripping the mere 
process of comparing sensations, and showing, in volition, more 
elevated thought, more reasoning, justice, and humanity : he 
alone of the races of mankind has produced examples of free 
and popular institutions, and his physical characteristics have 
maintained them in social life. By means of his logical intel- 
lect, he has arrived at ideas requisite for the acquisition of 
abstract truths ; resorting to actual experiment, he fixed bases 
whereon to build demonstrable inferences, when the positive 
facts are not otherwise shown ; he invented simple arbitrary 
characters to represent words and musical sounds, and a few 
signs which, nevertheless, denote, in their relative positions, 
all the possible combinations of numbers and quantity ; hehas 
measured time and distance, making the sideral bodies uner- 
ring guides to mark locality and give nautical direction ; he 
has ascended to the skies, descended into the deep, and 
mastered the powers of lightning. By mechanical researches 
the bearded man has assuaged human toil, multiplied the 
results of industry, and created a velocity of locomotion superior 
to the flight of birds. By his chemical discoveries he has 
modified bodily pain, and produced numberless discoveries 
useful in medicine, in arts and manufactures. He has found 
a sound and connected system of the sciences in general, and 
acquired a critical literature, while, for more than three thou- 
sand years, he has been the principal possessor of all human 
knowledge, and the assertor of fixed laws. He has instituted 
all the great religious systems in the world, and to his stock 
31 



862 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

has been vouchsafed the glory and the conditions of revela- 
tion. 

The Caucasian type alone continues in rapid development, 
covering with nations every congenial latitude, and portending, 
at no distant era, to bear rule in every region, if not by physi- 
cal superiority, at least by that dominion which religion, 
science, and enterprise confer. Constituting, as we here show, 
the most important, the most elevated, and highly organized 
type of Man, it becomes interesting to search out the original 
seat where geographical as well as historical and legendary 
evidence attest it was cradled, and whence, under the con- 
ditions of existence which now surround it, fair induction 
shows the great races of this stock commenced to radiate in all 
directions. 

Egyptian antiquity, when not claiming priority of social 
existence for itself, often pointed to the regions of Habesh, or 
high African Ethiopia, and sometimes to the north, for the seat 
of gods and demigods, because both were the intermediate 
stations of the progenitor tribes. The Hellenic nations, when 
they searched for their own aboriginal source, a part of their 
ignorant vanity, sought them in the farthest north, beyond the 
dominions of Thrace, and knew of moral Lactophagi, of gods 
and sages, among the Hyperboreans, which could be no nearer 
than the Borysthenes or Dnieper. Ionia and Western Asia 
claimed those sources of nationality for the high lands beyond 
the Euphrates, or for Armenia, where the language was partly 
Finnic, and further north-east on the Oxus, where the forms 
of speech were still more Hyperborean. Even Delos had three 
priestesses, natives of the distant north; and Olen, a high 
priest, whose name is so thoroughly Finnic as to be still com- 
mon in Scandinavia. But modern research, without rejecting 
these facts, has shown that they lead, always, to regions still 
further east, Hindu-Koosh, Cabul, and the Suleimanic range, 
high lands, probably designated, in a general form, by the 
Sanscrit name of Ariavartha, — the high, tjie holy land of the 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 863 

Hindoos, whence all the conquering- races of the type first 
brought their heroes, demigods, and legislators ; the whole, 
both of the south and the east, ultimately pointing to Thibet as 
the cradle of the Caucasian Man. 

At the western extremity of the Himalaya chain, beneath 
the plateau of Thibet, is situated the basin of Cashmere, sur- 
rounded on all sides by lofty mountains, and peaks covered 
with lasting snow. From this region flow four or five con- 
siderable affluents, which give its principal importance to the 
Indus. Where this great stream, by the natives called the 
Sind and Neelab, breaks from the north through the mountain 
gorge, commences Hindu-Koh, the real Caucasus and Imaus 
of the ancients, Kaf, or Kauf, of Arabian writers, a region so 
elevated that the greater portion is covered with permanent 
snow. The central mountain system is overlooked by the peak 
of Hindu-Koh, the culminating point, though others, like 
Kooner, to the east, and Kohi-Baba, at the western extremity, 
rise, one more than 15,000, and the other to 18,000 feet above 
the sea. From the vicinity of the last, the region is bounded 
on the north by the first feeders of the Oxus, forming another 
Punjaub, and on the south by the river Cabul, which, passing 
the foot of the Kohi-Baba (the special Kaf of oriental fiction), 
flows eastward to the Indus, forming one of the richest valleys 
in the world for every species of cultivation. Further south, 
beyond the peaks of Suffeed Koh, commence spurs or prolonga- 
tions, passing nearly at right angles from the main chain. 
One, the most western, lower than the other, is the Ghiljee, 
and the other, more elevated, forming the occidental side of 
the valley of the Indus, soon rises to a chain, which contains, 
further south, the peak of the Dove, where, at a remote period, 
it was already fabled that the ark rested, according to the 
legends of Northern India. It is not less than 12,000 feet in 
elevation, and now known by the appellation of Takt-y- 
Soleimaun. 

From Hindu-Koosh, a lofty chain, now known by the name 



364 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

of Ghoor, continues westward, and is said to have been more 
particularly the Parvati Montes, or ancient Paropamissus of 
Ptolemy. Further on, we find another Takt-y-Soleimaun, as 
well as a third at Och, on the Syr-Deriah, or Jaxartes. All 
Arabic names in central Asia are, however, of recent imposition. 
Then we have the Caspian range, leading on to the second, or 
interpontine Caucasus of western writers. Towards the east, 
Hindu-Koosh abuts on the Belor ridges, which turn northward, 
and first present the high table land of Pamere, termed the 
back-bone of the world. Pooshtu Kur, the most prominent 
peak in the new direction of the chain, sends forth, from its 
broad glacier, the grand source of the Oxus, Jeyhoon or Amou, 
which flows to the west and north ; and further on, where the 
Gakchal mountains curve from north to east, joining the Mous- 
sour and Thianchan chains, continued fronts of elevated gla- 
ciers pass on, in a north-eastern direction, till they subside in. 
the Gobi Desert. From the glacier of Moustach issues the 
Jaxartes, flowing on to the Sea of Aral. From longitude 70 to 
80 east, there are only three practicable passes to the west; 
all, further eastward, as well as the river, are turned to the 
north. From the nucleus of Irin Khabirgan, above the sources 
of the He river, east of the city Hi, passes a subordinate chain 
of high lands, leaving Lake Balkach to the west, and soon 
after (about lat. 49), turning like\\ase to the north and east, 
joins the little Altai, and constitutes a second table land, till it 
is united with the clustering ranges about Lake Baikal. We 
need not pursue this description further eastward, but confine 
our observations, by stating that from the east to the south- 
west a cross range, under various names, separates the Gobi 
Desert from the plains of Thibet, a great part of which is still 
geographically unknown, though here, also, as on the west of 
the great table land, rivers of considerable size, among which 
another He and the Kachgar Yarkiang terminate in lakes, or 
are absorbed in the sands, having frequently, in their upper 
courses, fertile vales and habitable glens. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 365 

It is on and around the regions here slightly traced out, that 
it becomes evident the filiations of the bearded stock should 
not be viewed solely through the medium of disjointed texts of 
ancient writers, far removed from the localities, but where they 
first began ; for, in order to form a fair estimate of realities, it 
is important to study the local geography, and to become 
thoroughly conversant with the science of what is technically 
denominated reading the ground, — that is, of grasping the 
conditions of every topographical and geographical fact; of 
appreciating the consequences attendant on residing or migrating 
across, up, or down, the current of streams ; of toiling through 
snow-clad regions, turning a long range, or finding an approach 
to mountain passes, through marshes and forests, straits by 
sea, and straits on land ; of migrations to be accomplished, not 
by hunters, but by tribes who have their families and property 
to carry with them, and must be able to find food in their 
progress. In opening thus the book of nature, and learning 
how realities should be dealt with, there remain many other 
considerations to be kept in view, such as climate and seasons, 
periods of frost, of ice, or of drought and monsoon winds. Still 
more, in order to trace the march of ancient nations, it is 
requisite to search for marks attesting man's handywork, in 
evidence of his passage ; for troglodyte habitations, sepulchral 
ruins, and piles of stones, tell also, and more forcibly, of by- 
gone ages, than texts of mere individual authority ; nay, they 
often disprove them, and invalidate remote chronology. In 
proportion as we may interpret rightly these documents of 
nature and time, we shall understand human doings in the 
infancy of society ; and when we also call to our aid the relig- 
ious doctrines, the ancient poetical records, and the laws and 
legends of a people, we shall find, in general, sufficient data to 
arrive at epochs in time often more trustworthy than the pre- 
cise years affixed to events, obtained by reckoning backwards 
certain astronomical facts, or reigns of kings, which chronolo- 
gists themselves find means to advance or retard, in order to 
31# 



366 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

make them applicable to a favorite theory. Our conclusions 
we shall rarely find at variance with linguistic relations, when 
these are fairly tested by circumstances. Here we endeavor to 
trace Man back from known conditions to others anterior to 
them, but which must of necessity have been in his career, 
though it may be that they occurred some centuries sooner or 
later. It is in this manner we find the reasons for assuming 
that the Caucasian stock, traced up to the earliest period, was 
nestling in or above the glens of Hindu-Koosh and the neigh- 
boring mountain ranges ; for there we find it already distin- 
guished in two or three well marked varieties of color, the 
swarthy and the fair, and subdivided in several secondary 
shades, each having homogeneous features, limbs, and intellect- 
ual capacities. We can even point out the particular geo- 
graphical localities which several must have occupied ; and 
from what has been stated already in the remarks on the 
Hindu-Papua tribes, and again on the Caucaso-Mongole or 
Finnic races, the gradual passage of one typical form to the 
intermediate. We have, in the remarks upon these subtypical 
tribes, had occasion to point out the evident possession of 
Thibet, of parts of China and Mongolia, by the bearded race ; 
and that they are noticed in early Chinese authorities by the 
names of Kinto-Moey and Yuchi ; and still in part are occupiers 
of the more inaccessible mountains of the interior, bearing the 
contemptuous appellations of Miau-tze and Mou-laou. Even 
western geographers were not entirely ignorant of this fact, 
since by them Gangarides are placed on the Brahmaputra; 
and the antique presence of Sanscrit, that most extensive of all 
languages, is attested, by innumerable denominations, far 
beyond these regions, since we find them pervading the 
greater part of Thibet and Indo-China. 

As the predominant external character, and the correspond- 
infif intellectual tendencies of the Caucasian Man are found to 
assimilate with the other two typical stocks in proportion as 
they approach geographically to, and mix with them, the inter- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 867 

mediate Ethiopia on the south, and Finnic on the north, 
have, next to their points of contact, shades of dark-skinned 
or fair races, partaking- of these characters in degree only 
according to that vicinity; and thence we must look for the 
normal point of the type where the influence of the other two 
is, or at least primevally was, least accessible. This geograph- 
ical point belongs emphatically to Hindu-Koosh, extending 
eastward up to the Pamere, and westward through Armenia, 
and the occidental Caucasus to Greece and Italy, notwithstand- 
ing the progress which, since the historical ages, the Mongolia 
diffusion has made in Northern Asia, following a similar 
extension of the true Caucasians towards the west, after an 
interval of some ages. 

Of the three varieties of color and temperament most dis- 
tinctly marked in the Caucasian type, the first is characterized 
by brown complexions and dark eyes and hair, very symmetri- 
cal proportions, a round-domed skull, and an intelligence most 
vividly imaginative. The temperament sensual, the vindic- 
tive passions active, the perceptive faculties quick, and the 
physical energies demanding mental excitement more than 
reason for exertion. Such are the ardent nations of the south. 
Opposed to them in form and disposition are the tribes of the 
north : with a loftier stature, a fair, often a ruddy skin, xan- 
thous hair, rather ponderous limbs, a squarer skull, and coarser 
features ; they have little comparative vivacity, but are 
endowed with the faculty of thought and reason less under the 
control of petulant desires ; more reflective, and therefore more 
continuously attached to conclusions once formed ; slow, but 
patient in perseverance ; and brave, without requiring the 
stimulus of enthusiasm. They are sincere and single-minded; 
but addicted to gluttony and drunkenness. Between these 
two we find the typical root still more essentially mountaineer 
in habit, with clear complexions, light brown, auburn, light or 
dark hair. It has the skull formed almost like the southern 
stem, but broader in the forehead. By nature and locality 



368 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

possessed of the highest endowments of the other two, except- 
ing perhaps the quality of reasoned patience ; it is imaginative, 
poetical, inventive, artful, eloquent, valiant, and indefatigable. 
It has been the master stem from all antiquity ; and, in par- 
ticular, that ambitious race, which is distinguished by high 
features, has ever been the conquering, the imperious form, 
that commands in battle and rules in peace, wherever it is 
found mixed in the social life of nations. Although beauty, 
valor, and logical capacity, may not by any means be denied 
the more vertical profiles, yet mathematical, linguistic, and 
experimental science belong more permanently to the less 
admired lines of features. It is by the exercise of these facul- 
ties, tempered with forbearance, that the resolute tenacity of 
the last mentioned maintains its ground, and the public will 
obtain modifications of the arbitrary canons which the others 
have imposed. 

It is the Caucasian Man, who, in all regions and times, has 
been the sole depositor of religion. The Papua and Negro 
races of antiquity do not appear to have possessed creeds at 
any period deserving to be classed with reasoned allegorical 
dogmas; they were merely absurd injunctions to commit 
revolting bloodshed. Even when palliated, remodelled, and 
systematized by the influence of Caucasian rulers, they con- 
tinued more to degrade the masters than to elevate the van- 
quished. Of the Mongolians, we know that the mythological 
Foh, the Budhas, Fologes, Soloktais, and Siakas, or Sakias, 
of China and Japan, were appropriated Hindu-Caucasians, 
Yuchi, or Asiatic Finns. The bearded races alone had pos- 
session of a true reminiscence of the diluvian cataclysis, and 
transmitted it by their colonies to every part of the earth, 
mutilated, altered, and debased, but still always discernible, 
notwithstanding that in time the high plains of Asia had first 
instituted a Sabjean worship, and subsequently implanted it 
upon the Arkitc creed, confounding the patriarch navigator 
with the sun, typifying the deluge in the form of a dragon or 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 369 

vast sea-serpent, and converting the ship or ark into a living 
organ of preservation and reproduction : thus was substance 
afforded for interminable legends, names, and dogmas, which, 
in one or more forms, spread all around, reached the furthest 
west, originated the repetition of ancient names for new local- 
ities, new sites of Paradise, new rivers of Eden, new moun- 
tains of the Descent, in the succession of migrations, and when 
time had fixed fresh centres of national existence.^ In this 
manner, while the Semitic nations recalled the memory of 
their primeval social abode in the Babel of Babylon, the 
Egyptians saw their Arkite city at Thebes, or Theba; the 
Persian Arii found the city of the gods in Pasargade, where 
the huge palace was again an ark ; the Hindoos pointed to 
Kasi, now Benares; and the western Teutonic nations to 
Asgard, near the mouth of the Don ; while, by the very radia- 
tion of these localities, there is reason to believe, what tradition 
confirms, that the original locality was high up the course of 
the Oxus, if, indeed, it was not actually within the mountains 
of Hindu-Koosh, or Bokhara, significantly denominated the 
High Land of God. 

The great mental activity stimulating all the races of this 
type to physical exertion, has caused the earliest ages to be re- 
plete with their wars and conquests. First, probably, they were 

* The root, Ar, in Arach, Araxes, Arachosia, Arbela, Arch, Ararat, 
Arawati, Aarhorn, Aar, and Ra, rivers, ever implies rushing, soaring, as 
in the Circassian a peak, in Pelhevic a roaring stream, and in Sanscrit 
denominations abounding in High Asia always connected with mountain 
and high land : hence we find it often in connection with the physical local- 
ities, where Eden and the four rivers of Paradise, as well as the diluvian 
event, are placed by the traditions of nations. Indian pundits have 
pointed out Lake Manasa, 17,000 feet above the sea, as the sacred centre 
whence the four rivers of Paradise, the Brahmaputra, Ganges, Indus, and 
Sita, are erroneously asserted to proceed. But each nation long located 
in a region has found a sacred centre, and the required rivers, at no great 
distance from home. There are at least twenty of them between Thibet 
and Snowdon. 



370 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

directed against the less pugnacious black nations, and then 
against each other, striving not only for the choice of regions 
to inhabit for the possession of pasturage and rivers, but to 
dictate opinions on all questions of human interest ; and as the 
conquerors of one moment were the vanquished of the next, all 
the tribes, particularly of the west, are exceedingly intermixed ; 
in physical and mental appearance bearing evidence to the fact. 
It is still more a result of the long continued practice common 
to all, of buying, selling and capturing human beings for 
slaves, — the Britons, the Gauls, the Saxons, Germans, Rus- 
sians, and Hebrews ; all the nations of Western Asia, the 
ancient Greeks, the Romans, the Carthaginians, pagans and 
Christians, all shared for ages the abominable traffic. The 
dark-haired nations of the south were choice in searching for 
fair slaves from the north ; the fair preferred more swarthy, 
and gave great prices for blacks from Africa. Constantinople 
abounded in Sclavonic captives and children, purchased by 
Jews ; the debtor and the prisoner of war were sold, and Ver- 
dun was long celebrated for its traffic in emasculated victims. 
Hence the fair, the xanthous, the brown and black complex- 
ioned, are mixed in every nation. 

With regard to the facilities of proceeding by land from the 
Indus and from central Asia to the west, there is in every 
direction the difficulty to be encountered of a deficiency 
of water, and consequently of verdure to subsist cattle. There 
are extensive deserts of absolute sand, and the coast-line along 
the Persian Gulf seems never to have been practicable. 
Beginning from the mouth of the Indus, the first route passing 
to the west, by Kurrachee, crossed the Luchee Hills to Bam- 
bacia, Faura, now Puhra, traversed the Gedrosian mountain 
chain, and led to ancient Pasargada (Persagarda) and Per- 
sepolis. It was by this line Alexander the Great returned 
with his forces to Persia. The second was by the Gundara 
Pass, through the desert to Lake Aria, whence again it bent 
southward to Persepolis ; this was the route of Craterus with a 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 371 

Macedonian corps. A third avenue still leads through the 
Bolan Pass to the Etymander or Helmund, and Lake Aria, 
now Zurrah, whence there is a caravan route by Yezd, through 
the Great Arian Desert, of above fifty days' journey, for loaded 
camels to Ispahan. Another passes to the north from Dooshak, 
near the above lake, by Furrah, to Herat, Meshed, to the 
Atrack River, and Asterabad. But the fourth of these lines is 
the great and most ancient route of migration, not so much to 
the Indus, as from the high table land of Thibet to the Oxus, 
in remote periods apparently much more available than at 
present, for the inland sea of Western Asia had not yet 
entirely shrunk into the Caspian and Aral, and the rivers now 
lost in sand, or wholly dried up, were still flowing to that 
Mediterranean. It became the high road from Kachgar by 
Ota, across the Bolor range, through Karatighin to Bactra, or 
Balkh, was the great outlet from Hindu-Koosh down the Oxus, 
or along the flanks of Paropamisus to the west, and by the 
troglodyte city of Bamean, entered the two passes of Kohi- 
Baba, by Cabul, and Jalalabad (Nagara), to the Indus. The 
other great line is through the Kiptchak and Gakchal chains, 
by the Kaksou and Terek passes, leading north-west to Och or 
Takti Soliman, on the Jaxartes ; it is a caravan route, still in 
use to Orenburg, in Russia. 

THE SEMITIC RACES. 

It was along these avenues that the moving colonists 
descended, both from the plateau of Thibet, and from Hindu- 
Koosh. We have seen how they penetrated to India ; how 
among other nations the Arab and Indoo Arab formed the prin- 
cipal basis of the Ethiopian stem, till the whole of the original 
nations, as Egyptians, Cushites, and Habesh, notwithstanding 
that more northern, and even fair-haired tribes were merged 
in them, w'ere finally driven across the Red Sea into Africa. 

Thus we have noticed how Caucasian characteristics deepen 



372 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

into Papua Negroes, in proportion to their intermixture 
towards the tropics, or brighten as they pass on to the border 
of this first distribution ; for, on the line of contact, the conquer- 
ing race has nearly retained its whole integrity, whilst on the 
north of that line, a melanic shade in the skin, with very dark 
eyes, and black curly hair, leaves in the first, and perhaps 
oldest civilized nations, an evidence of some pollution with 
their vanquished slaves, and makes the question of local 
hybridism incontestable ; for, notwithstanding the distinction 
drawn by the nations themselves, the facts remain unaltered. 
And we shall now proceed to notice a second wave of more 
pure Caucasian Arabians, who left but slender record of their 
predecessors, and became united with the rejected descendants 
of the family of Heber. They appear to have been herdsmen 
of the southern desert, wandering with their goats and sheep, 
perhaps with camels, onwards towards the west, beneath the 
Gedrosian high lands, till they crossed the Shat-ul-Arab. 



THE ARABS. 

The original tribes of Arabia, already in possession of the 
land at the time of the departure of Israel, were of the same 
race as some of the first invaders of India. They mixed with 
the Papuas, and formed the Ethiopian stem, which possessed 
the peninsula of Arabia, as far eastward as the lower 
Euphrates, expanding more and more over the desert of Syria, 
where the true Bedoween, the swarthy JEnese clans, chiefly 
resided; but here they w^ere encountered by the giant race 
from the north-east, who reached Syria or Shams, and soon 
appear to have established themselves as masters among them, 
in like manner as they eflfected the same revolution in Egypt, 
and Palestine or Canaan ; continuing to press southward, they 
mixed with the possessors of Yemen, retaining, in some cases 
only, a separate nationality; such, for example, as the Rus- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 373 

tumi, the Phoenicians, and the Getse. International wars, and 
the usual decrease of the fair-skinned master race in climates 
of tropical heat, caused several tribes to be lost, such as those 
of Ad, Thamud, Jades, and Tasm, which, being of the more 
northern portion, were chiefly affected by these causes, and 
subsequently were vanquished by the Cuthites of Yemen, or 
were absorbed ; and their fate is the subject of sundry marvel- 
lous leg-ends in the Tarikh Tebri. 

At present there remain the Arab-el- Arabah, forming two 
stems, claiming Kahtan for common parent. They are per- 
haps the Hadoram and Tarah of Moses ; but it is not to them 
that Arabia is indebted for celebrity. Affiliated races produced 
it. The Mostarabi, or Ishmaelites of the Hejas, claim the 
honor, and assume a superior nobility of blood, as descendants 
from Abraham. They are the fabricators of the Kaba, and the 
distorted legends concerning the patriarchs. In that vocation 
it seems the Koreish have been chiefly engaged, although the 
affinity they have with the descendants of Ishmael is doubtful ; 
it being believed that they were originally Edomites, that is, 
a red-haired people. In this vicinity, among the Edomite cities, 
there was Erech, Raphia, or Rekem, near Mens Casius and 
Larissa, Larsh near Gaza, both bearing evidently names con- 
nected with a Scythic dialect, and repeated wherever Pelasgian 
nations were spread, from Asia Minor to the Danube ; equally 
common to Celto-Scythic possessions, as the names of Lorch, 
Lorach, Lorca, Lara, and Larch, abound in Spain and Southern 
Germany.^ Towards the mouth of the Euphrates, however, 
in the vicinity of scriptural Bosra, the Arabian Zobeir was 
inhabited by the Orchseni, a colony, it appears, of Indo- 
Ethiopians, who, Pliny says, promulgated " a tertia Chaldaso- 
rum doctrina." They had acquirements in astronomy and 
science which were regarded as magical. The inhabitants 

* Even Nineveh is termed Larissa by Xenophon, and as the eastern- 
most of the thirteen places so named by the ancients. Most of these were 
of Pelasgian origin. 

32 



874 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Still breed white asses, as of old, and appear themselves like 
low caste Hindoos. Of this ancient capital there are still vis- 
ible fragments of pillars, &c.; and it may be remarked that 
Zobeir is more likely derived from a Sanscrit or Scythic root, 
denoting sorcery, than from an Arab chief of that name, who is 
said to have fallen near this place, when Ayesha, widow of 
Mahommed, was defeated by Ali, in the year 656 of our era. 

Another source of the Arabian people was derived from the 
Jewish clans, which, after the massacre in Persia, had re- 
tired to the desert, and become formidable by their numbers 
and warlike propensities. They had apostatized, and united 
with the followers of Mahommed, and greatly strengthened 
his forces, notwithstanding that other clans of Hebrews, who 
retained the faith of their fathers, were expelled by him. 
Long before that period they had been forced to disperse, in 
consequence of the successful inroad of a Roman army under 
CElius Gallus, who is said to have burst the colossal stone em- 
bankment raised to sustain the waters of the Mareb, a very 
extensive reservoir, serving to irrigate a great district of land. 
The event is known b}?- the name of the deluge of El Maureb; 
for when the waters escaped, the whole cultivated surface was 
swept away, and the w^retchedness it produced was among the 
original causes of the subsequent expansion of the Arabian 
power, because forced emigrations led colonies beyond the 
Shat-ul-Arab, perhaps, even then, so far to the east as the bank 
of the Indus, producing constant hostilities against the Par- 
thians, while other tribes, pressed to the borders of Kourdistan, 
equally embroiled them with the Byzantine Romans, at a 
period when the Arabian horse first began to acquire its supe- 
rior qualities. Ages before that time the Phoenician traders, 
who were masters in the Persian Gulf and the islands of Bah- 
rein, had no doubt stimulated the Arabs' love of adventure, and 
from pirates turned their attention to legitimate trade, ulti- 
mately becoming the successors of the parents of commercial 
industry. They traded as they had roved to Madagascar, and 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. StS 

in the monsoons reached not only the marts of India, but, it 
appears, penetrated by their own efforts, or in connection with 
a remote navigating system in the South Seas, to the ports of 
China. For ages the southern portion of Arabia was possessed 
by Phoenicians and Cuthites : the last mentioned, after they 
had been driven across the Red Sea to Africa, returned, and 
again swayed the commercial provinces by their authority ; 
they opposed the progress of Islam, but were at length van- 
quished, not by the power of the true Arabians, but by the 
affiliated tribes of Mostarabi, who, with the Koran in hand, 
rallied all parties in a career of unexampled victory, extin- 
guishing in their progress languages, nations, traditions, and 
history, to the wall of China, and to the Pyrenees. 

Notwithstanding the vicissitudes and intermixture of races, 
the aspect of the present typical Arabs is a light sinewy struc- 
ture, with great capacity of endurance, a swarthy complexion, 
with high lengthened features, black curly locks, and a bril- 
liant dark eye, full of malignant fire. Though not exempt 
from subjugation, they have survived conquests, because no 
victorious nation has ever thought the desert a possession 
worth acquiring. 

With the national convulsions the language of Arabia has 
likewise changed. Ancient Arabic is not only a dead lan- 
guage, but the character and alphabet are equally lost, though 
it is supposed to have had two dialects, the Hamjar and Kore- 
ish, and that certain words and forms of speech in the Axumite 
tongue of Abyssinia are remains of it. 

THE HEBREWS. 

Though of all the nations of antiquity this people is best known, 
and clearly depicted in the most authentic records, the conclu- 
sions of the comment on the text are by no means free from 
objection, respecting the assumed geographical position of the 
original stem, nor the inference that this people, so far as 



376 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

regards its subsequent alliances and interunions, had the right 
to call itself pure or unmixed. All the tribes descended from 
Abraham and Lot were of high land descent, migrating 
through Armenia, clearly in part of a fair rufous stem, gray- 
eyed, and auburn hair. Evidence of the fact is repeatedly 
traced in history and in tradition. The manifestation is still 
positively marked in many Oriental Israelites ; and in Morocco, 
a region least liable to that kind of adulteration, the women in 
particular being to this day generally gray-eyed. The family 
of Heber was, therefore, not Chaldean nor Assyrian. It came 
from the East, and might be of the same stem as that which 
subsequently invaded the Suleimanic range, west of the Indus, 
for here was an early national centre, whence colonies pene- 
trated to India, where Hebrew congeners may now be believed 
to exist ; as tribes of Rajpoots, and others, passing on to the 
borders of Indo-China, may be the present Mugs, for all of 
these have the peculiar Hebrew aspect and conformation ; have 
even rites and customs similar to that people, as well as tra- 
ditions and reminiscences, which now assume the aspect of 
actual descent from the lost tribes of Israel.^ These facts 
establish an affinity too positive for utter rejection. Although 
we will not carry the conditions of Hebrew consanguinity 
further than to hint that perhaps the promised high destiny of 
the race embraced alliances which should include the three 
great typical forms ; first, by connection with the rufous stem, 
through the Asiatic Finn tribes, who were the Scythian con- 
querors, at one time in Armenia, and again for ages resident 
in northern Egypt and Palestine ; and in the second, by the long 

* The assertion that these Affghans expelled a nationof Kaafirs or idol- 
aters since the Hcgira, is more unlikely than that they themselves are 
converted idolaters ; for mountain tribes are not expelled by passing 
conquerors who have themselves Jewish rites. • It is more likely that 
original consanguinity carried Jewish fugitives among them, whose 
books and wondrous history caused the whole clan to adopt them as their 
own. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 377 

unrestrained alliances with the real Egyptian people, as well 
as with Canaanites during the administration of the Judges ; 
and at a later period with Babylonians, Greeks and Romans. 

A most ancient assimilation of the Hebrew people, if not an 
actual origin among tribes located near the Gomerian source, 
is indicated by the exiled tribes having shown a greater ten- 
dency to mix and assimilate with the Finnic Scythians on the 
north than with the Arabs on the south ; notwithstanding that 
their language was more positively allied to it than to the 
Celtic or any Finnic dialect. In the north alone, the ancient 
Israelite race found honor and power, as was proved by the 
military energy they displayed against the Persians, noticed in 
an earlier part of this volume, and again in their connection 
with and titular dignity among the Khazars ; it is even now 
shown in the respect bestowed upon the Karaite Jews of the 
Crimea. These views are strengthened by the beautiful spher- 
ical cranium of the Jews, as fine as the Arabian or Circassian ; 
by their profiles still predominantly aquiline ; by the frequent 
recurrence of gray eyes, xanthous hair ; and by a sturdy struc- 
ture, less Arabian than Celtic, yet on the whole retaining an 
Asiatic and peculiar aspect seldom adorned with beauty. 

All the foregoing conditions taken together tend to show 
that the Hebrew race and language were not paternally of a 
Semitic origin, but that both resulted from the region where the 
first family came to settle among strangers ; and the mixed 
alliances, in the earlier period of the tribal history, contracted 
with Egyptians, Canaanites, Arabs, Babylonians, and even 
Phoenicians, affected it, till in the end they adopted Greek and 
Roman names. The males of a race cannot alone maintain its 
purity, and where polygamy exists, the other sex must neces- 
sarily change it almost entirely. 

In China, Cochin-China, and Malabar, Jews now exist in 

families, according to the most trustworthy account, ever since 

they were expelled Persia, in the year of Christ 508. There 

are in the last-named region black Jews, probably a mixed race 

32* 



378 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

of proselytes of low caste. Though an older people, the Sulei- 
manic Aifghans pretend to be descendants of the first captivity ; 
there is still a clan of them known as the BeniKhaibe in Arabia ; 
and the Falishas of Abyssinia, according to Bruce, are a tribe 
of Jews; finally, the white race of Zafi-Ibrim, in Madagascar, 
claim Abraham for their progenitor. The handsomest of the 
whole nation are asserted to be the Babylonians of Meso- 
potamia ; and it used to be from among them that the prince 
of the captivity, now the wretched representative of the 
ancient kings, was and still is selected by the Turkish govern- 
ment. 

In all lands they are, as of old, a stiff-necked race, most reso- 
lutely attached to their institutions, ever since the Christian 
dispensation was promulgated. It is difficult to decide whether 
their own obstinacy of character, or the unceasing injustice of 
mankind, have been other than agents, mutually acting upon 
each other, to produce that permanent manifestation in their 
forms and opinions which separates them from human society, 
as it were, by a lasting miracle ; still the persecuted Jew bears 
on his front the tokens of mental power, in his make the attri- 
butes of physical strength, and in his heart the feelings of 
mercy and charity, which all the vices acquired by degradation, 
or natural to his temperament, cannot efface ; for since a more 
humane treatment is afforded to the race, constant examples 
of good, benevolent and liberal actions embellish their conduct, 
even more than in the feudal ages their learning and research 
illustrated their mental capacities. 



THE BABYLONIANS, CHALDEES, AND ASSYRIANS. 

The nations now to be considered, though differing among 
themselves, were evidently all of one family, obscurely traceable 
to eastern Armenia and Atropatene, whence, as they spoke 
dialects of Semitic languages, it is evident that, like the Ambs, 
they had come originally from the high lands in the east. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 379 

They were, moreover, advanced in civilization, had solar and 
astronomical religions, with legends of Fish-men legislators, 
whose persons and doctrines revealed a diluvian reminiscence, 
distorted into Indian forms. In their record, the first disper- 
sion of mankind was transposed from the high table land of Asia 
to the new centre of their own locality, in the plains of Shinar. 
Shinar may be a repetition of the name of Djeen ; and the 
Bab, that is. Ghaut, Gate, or Pass, was, perhaps, transferred to 
the collateral signification of a tower.^ 

For the pyramidal temple of Belus, still visible among the 
ruins of historical Babylon, has more than one counterpart in 
Persia, little inferior in magnitude : that particularly of Bara- 
dan, situated on the mountain-chain, near the upper Diala, 
almost south of Lake Van, is remarkable. The remains are 
of disintegrated brick ; and the summit 170 feet high, or only 
28 feet less ; but it is 600 feet in base, or 100 more than Birs 
Niraroodjt near the Euphrates. The Babylonian unquestiona- 
bly had four towers at the angles of the summit, and a broad 
terrace on one of its faces, with probably a central space 
between the towers for fire worship. It had walled enclos- 
ures, perhaps colossal lions, at the entrances ; all which seem 
to have been common with other structures of the same kind, 
and notably in the Budh temples of Suka in Java, where every 
one of the foregoing particularities exists. 

* Bab, Baby, in the most ancient sense, a giant. Baby in Egyptian, 
Typhon, Taifune. It might be conjectured that the pass, or, at least, one 
of the principal gorges for descending from the plateau of Thibet, across 
the Bolor range, upon the sources of the Oxus, was originally meant ; for 
at the foot of this commence the glens which lead to Bamian and to 
Balkh ; and the summit is close to Kashgar, near Behesh-Kend ; in Ori- 
ental legend a city of paradise, seated in a verdant region, on the Chi- 
nese side of the summit. 

+ Birs Nimrood, the temple of Belus, and the temple of Nebuchadnez- 
zar, are the same ruins. The name of " Tower of Babel" is originally 
a rabbinical inference. There are many other applications of scriptural 
localities and names in the south-west of Asia, made at random by the 
Arabs, who, like most other Semitic nations, having lost their own tradi- 



380 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

If the Chaldeans had been established in a great kingdom 
when Abraham entered Canaan, it is unlikely that the Elamite 
Arabs would be sufficiently strong to make alliances with other 
princes, and undertake invasions to so great a distance as the 
vicinity of Jerusalem ; and in the Egyptian historical paintings 
of the conquests of Sesostris, and of Thothmes II. and III., all 
of which appear to have been directed to the valley of the Oxus, 
that in these transactions there should be no acknowledged 
representations of Babylonians, or Chaldeans, either as allies 
or enemies. They first appear as prisoners captured by Tir- 
haka ; whence it seems that either the Egyptian conquerors 
never proceeded so far east as the Euphrates, or that the Baby- 
lonian empire did not, at so early a date (that is, in or about 
the reign of Cushan-rishathaim), embrace the upper course of 
that river, or of the Tigris.^ Regarded as a race, they were 
unquestionably pure Caucasians of the black-haired tribes ; and 
so closely allied to the subsequent Persians, that no distinction 
can be made between them, as they are represented in the has 
reliefs of Persepolis and those of Nineveh, lately brought to 
light. They have the same ample beards, and abundant curly 
locks, similarly trimmed. The sculptures represent the same 
symbolical monsters, the same cuneiform letters, the same cos- 
tume, the same system of architecture, and the same school of 
design in sculpture — as if little or no alteration or progress 

tions and history, frame new legends out of the Scriptures ; and what 
the Rabbins only misplaced, they distorted to suit their particular 
national vanities. 

* These colored delineations contain, however, a series of nations, most 
assuredly representing tribes of high-featured Caucasians, and the more 
vertical profiles of the midland colonies, which can be traced from Indo- 
Koosh to Asia Minor and Greece. There are fair-haired people, with a 
blue round spot upon the forehead, like a tribal, or caste mark. They 
are the Rebo, with ox-hide mantles, and tattooed skins, Cyclopians of 
High Armenia ; and some wear crosses, perhaps Budh amulets ; and the 
Rot-n-no, a giant race, with red beards, chariots, horses, elephants, bears, 
and manufactures in metals ; or people of the giant races, Scythae or 
Finns. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 381 

had taken place in the national civilizations, between the 
periods of splendor in Nineveh and the downfall of Persep- 
olis.=^ 



THE GAURS AND PERSIANS. 

Whether the Chaldeans, or Chasdim of the Hebrews, were 
only hordes of robbers at the time they are placed by geogra- 
phers in Arabia Petraga, or whether they were a distinct people 
from the learned caste of Chaldees at Babylon, is not quite 
clear, though in either case they must still be regarded as 
mountaineers before they were established in Babylonia. The 
physical characters of the Assyrians, and their locality, alike 
attest that they, the same, or a kindred race, were also moun- 
taineers, who had migrated, by marching along the flank of the 
Caspian chain, till they established themselves in eastern Ar- 
menia ; but whether they were allied to the Karduchi, Kurds 
of the present time, does not appear, although, in Persian tra- 
dition, the Gaurs were the first conquerors of Aria or Iran. 
The name, again, indicates mountaineers or giants ; and the 
region whence they departed was no doubt Paropamisus, or 
the Gordii Montes. In that case, they passed most likely by 
the Hehnund to Lake Zurra, and spreading over Aria, they 

* The sculptures of Nimrood, now in the British Museum, indicate a 
more ancient, though not an essentially different period. Of Bactra we 
have no minute knowledge, though, from the still existing practice in 
Cabul, palaces under ground were no doubt likewise constructed there, 
where the climate is still more severe ; and the similarity of condition 
with Nineveh is proved from the fact, that it was at the siege of Bactra 
Ninus himself died. His ambitious wife, Semiramis, succeeded him, 
and was the conqueror of the Omool Belaut, or " mother of cities," once 
the capital of Kai Kaus, when it was named Sarias, or Sariaspa? Future 
research at Ecbatana, that is, about the present Hamadan, and on the 
sites of other primeval cities of Upper Asia, will, no doubt, reproduce 
subterranean habitations like those of Nimrood, and reveal conditions of 
art more perfect in the older than in the subsequent periods. 



882 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

were ultimately driven forward to the present Kurdistan, prob- 
ably by the Persians, who in their turn had been tenants of 
Bactria ; for all the traditionary events of the first dynasty are 
referred to the time when they were expelled by the Ou-sun, 
fair-haired tribes from Thibet, or by Massagetas from the north.^ 
They, too, had traversed the Paropamisus, and, following the 
Helmund, had crossed the Arian Desert to the hills of Susiana, 
where they absorbed the Elamite bowmen ; located their sacred 
centre at Persagarda, and, further west, built Persepolis,t where 
the great empire of Persia properly commenced. The city 
and palace were constructed according to a system of architec- 
ture already long established at Zariaspa or Bactra, or in con- 
formity with one common to the whole vast region of Nineveh, 
Babylon, and High Asia. The ancient Parsi language shows, 
however, a certain affinity with the Assyrian through the Pel- 
hevi, introduced by the Medes, and an adopted civilization, in 
the use of a cuneiform alphabet. This character continued to 
be used for inscriptions after the overthrow of Darius, and was 
revived during the Parthian sway, although another dialect, 
namely the Zend, was spoken — a fact which attests the pres- 
ence of a further Sanscrit element, approaching still nearer 
to the early Gothic of the west, and a tongue even now in 
part mixed up with the Poushtoo, used by the Affghans. 
The Belooches and Poushtoo Affghans, the Kurds of Kurdis- 
tan, the Loures, the modern Persians, and the Ossetes of Cir- 
cassia, are all branches of this great stem, which, in ancient 
and in more recent ages, has held dominion over Egypt, and 
produced some men of great military celebrity (such as Saladin 

* The Ou-Sun, and Kian-Kiien, or Kakas of Chinese writers, were, 
according to Klaproth, fair-haired races within the western borders of the 
high land chains. The jMassagetae, first known on the outside of the same 
table land, gradually moved down to the north-west, and were for a period 
stationary on the south and east of Lake Aral. They were all Geta tribes, 
or clans, with Finnic intermixture. 

t If indeed Persepolis, Pasargada, and Persagarda, are not the same. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 383 

the Great) ; geometricians ; and in particular, poets of lasting 
reputation. 

THE TYPICAL CAUCASIANS. 

We now come to the typical Caucasian family, which em- 
braces the greatest celebral development in width and depth, 
combined with the highest form of beauty, strength, and 
power of endurance, coupled with a nervous system less 
swayed by impulse. In this group are found the most per- 
fect notions of the ideal beautiful, of relative proportion in 
art and in literature, of logic and of the mathematical sci- 
ences in general. The skull, though somewhat lower in the 
dome, is broader in proportion than the Arab and the Hebrew, 
more developed at the forehead, making that line more con- 
tinuously vertical down the nose, which, in the finer specimens, 
is not aquiline, but straight. The complexion is clear brown, 
with mostly dark-brown hair, passing to auburn, generally 
straight, the beard full, the chest ample and deep, the loins 
small, the gait erect, and the tread martial. It is here that 
female beauty is possessed of the highest human loveliness, 
grace, and delicacy ; and the manly character attains the most 
majestic and venerable aspect. 

The primeval focus of the family is traced up to the high- 
est glens of Hindu-Koosh, the real Imaus and Caucasus of 
antiquity. In that region, or possibly still higher, in the most 
elevated portion of ancient Turan, the Cassio-regio of Thibet, 
Cassar, or Cashgar of Marco Polo, it is that we must place the 
primeval point of departure; for there, in a verdant fruitful 
region, a Behesh, or Paradise, according to Iranian nations, 
is placed Ardukend, Ordukend, still more anciently Arthur- 
keind, and now known as Behetseh Keng or Keind. It has 
still ruins of arched avenues, the work of ancient kings, and 
the locality is on the caravan road, on the north side of the 
plateau of Pamere, eastward, going by Cashgar to China ; and 



884 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

westward, down the Bolor range to Hindu-Koosh and Balkh. 
In these mountain ridges the Kaufir of the present time retains 
the full vigor, independence, and beauty of his earliest pro- 
genitors, notwithstanding that he is hunted like a wild beast 
by Moslem half-bred tribes, and debarred all access to more 
civilized nations. His similarity to the ancient Greek nations 
is so striking, that it was believed the hardy mountaineers 
were a relic of a Macedonian army left in the country ; nor 
was the supposition a wild fancy, since dynasties of Greek 
princes have ruled in Bactria, and in Candahar for several 
centuries after the memorable invasion of Alexander the Great. 



THE KAUFIRS, OR MAMOGES.=* 

It is in the fertile glens of lofty ridges of pine forest, forming 
a portion of Hindu-Koosh and Beloot Tauch, that this people 
resides, though as yet little known. The true national denomi- 
nation of it is not even certain, and instead we are obliged to 
rest contented with the Mahommedan vituperative term of 
Kaufirs, or infidels, which the Affghans use to designate idola- 
ters. They divide them into Speen, or white, and Seeapush, 
or Tor Kaufirs, merely because one is habitually clothed in 
white cotton, and the other in black goat-skins. The people is 
divided into a multitude of independent clans, living peaceably 
together, but in unceasing war with the Moslem, much like the 
Montenegrins in Europe, who carry on an exterminating con- 
test with the Turks. The Speen Kaufirs, having Little Thi- 
bet on the north, Ladauk east, the Punjaub south, and Poushtoo 
west, have to guard themselves only on the side of the four 
passes leading from the Punjaub, one from the AflJghan side on 
the west, and two from the north, there being none on the east. 

* Of the four original tribes, the Mamoges alone retained the primitive 
manners ; the Camoze, Hilar, and SiJar, becoming Mahommedans, and 
mixing with other Islamized nations. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 885 

By the direction of these, migrations had easy communication 
from Thibet, and towards Cabul, or down the Oxus as well as 
the Indus. The Seeapush appear to be still more remote, and 
may extend to Cashmere. These tribes are remains of a con- 
siderable people, among whom were the original Cashmerians, 
and a great part of the inhabitants of Badakshaun and Cabul, 
as far south as the Deggaun tribes, and on the southern face 
of the higher ridges of Himalaya, extending eastward to an 
unknown distance ; for, at the sources of the Jumna and Bun- 
derpoosh, clans of Bisharees are blue-eyed, and often have red 
hair ; but nearly the whole of these, being subjected by Mos- 
lem conquerors, have lost their pristine individuality of national 
character, though among the Affghan tribes of Cabul, in par- 
ticular, it is still not infrequent to observe heads and figures 
that might serve for models to sculptors who would portray a 
Jupiter, or a Mars, according to the refined idealism of the 
ancient Greeks. 

The Kaufirs have the face oval, the brows well arched, and 
the nose and mouth even more refined than the Greek. They 
are moreover, still fairer, generally with lighter hair and gray 
eyes. They defend their fastnesses, whither they have retired 
since the Mahommedan conquest in 742 of the Hegira, with 
obstinate valor, attaching certain privileges to him who slays 
an Affghan. They still retain a rude idol stone, denominated 
Irmtan, representing Imra, Dagun or God, the Supreme Being, 
having besides inferior divinities, evidently borrowed from other 
nations, chiefly from India. They shave the hair, excepting a 
tuft in the middle, which, when it is plaited, is exactly similar 
to the older statues of Horus, when he is holding the Egyp- 
tian hoe, and recurs again on a coin of Comana, where Per- 
seus is so figured, and again on one of ancient Tauris. It is 
the glib of the ancient Irish. The Kaufirs sit on stools, and 
do not squat like other Asiatics. They are vehement dancers, 
and a kind people. 

Blending with the nearest black-haired tribes, the Mamoges 
33 



386 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

may be considered to have formed the ancient Persians, and 
with the fair-haired on the north, produced the handsome tribes 
of the earliest Goths ; for immediately towards the west the line 
of migration through Cabul is found interrupted by invaders 
from both sides, and history is full of the contests which very 
different nations have maintained in that region. There are 
even now found, upon this line, remaining tribes of Persians, 
Usbeks, Toorkees, Mokrees, Eeekas, Kalmucks, Arabs, Kir- 
guise, Hindoos, Punjaubees, Cashmerians and Lesghis, which 
last are among those most nearly allied to the primeval stock; 
for, after traversing the space disturbed by migrating collisions, 
chiefly Turkoman, we find these and the Circassians, Abas- 
sians, Georgians, Albanians, &c., likewise refugees, in the 
highest glens of the Caspian Caucasus; and, in remote ages, 
there is no doubt that some of them once extended along the 
southern coast of the Caspian and Georgia, onwards to the 
Borysthenes, and through Asia Minor to the mountains of 
Thessaly and Greece. 



THE CIRCASSIAN AND GEORGIAN TRIBES OF THE CASPIAN 

CAUCASUS. 

While others, coming more from the north, with, as it 
appears, a portion of Finnic blood in their veins, held posses- 
sion of the plains on the Kouban and the Don,* these extended 
westward, in the Crimea, and along the shores of the Euxine, 
until they were in part swept onwards, and partly driven back 
to take shelter in the fastnesses they now hold. The Don 
Cossacks are of the same stem, for although all the tribes are, 
in various proportions, of mixed origin, the typical form is 
always evident. 

* Although the banks of the Borysthenes are known to have been suc- 
cessively inhabited by Alans, Goths, Geti, Cumans, Polowtses, and Rox- 
olani, the antiquities known to have been the work of Circassians are still 
found scattered through the country. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 387 

The women of Circassia are beautiful, probably the most 
beautiful, in features and complexion, of the whole earth. 
They have, often, light hair and blue eyes, tall, graceful, and 
erect forms, with straight or slightly aquiline noses, well formed 
lips, and beautiful teeth ; while the men justly pride themselves 
on their broad shoulders, slender waists, expressive features, 
stalwart height, and martial gait. Indeed, this inherent superi- 
ority of form is so dominant, that the unceasing practice which 
the Osmanli Turks have of purchasing female slaves of this 
race, has caused them to have become, from the most ill-shaped 
and wretched-looking of barbarian Mongoles, a people that 
can now dispute the palm of beauty with the handsomest of 
Europe. 

For, and with these nations, commencing in Central Asia, 
Kaufirs, Affghans, Georgians, Circassians, Cossacks, tribes of 
Asia Minor, Greece, Rome, and the Gothic people of the north, 
on to the west of Europe, there are ever sympathetic feelings, 
an enduring interest, independent of religious motives, political 
considerations, or commercial purposes. In England, espec- 
ially, we feel for them more than curiosity, travel among' 
them, overlook or palliate their barbarism ; nay, so strong and 
deep is the inclination, that among British captives made dur- 
ing the disastrous winter months in Cabul, most spoke highly 
of the urbanity they had experienced ; several of the softer sex 
felt unwilling to be released ; and some, it is said, actually 
escaped from those who were to restore them to their homes. 
Nothing but original consanguinity could reproduce such effects. 
To that cause alone we must ascribe the long duration of a 
Macedonian monarchy subsisting for so many generations 
among the most warlike people in existence ; and, in more 
modern times, that the fierce bigotry of Islamism has not oblit- 
erated that tendency ; for, beyond this line of consanguinity, 
the Tahtar race, now in possession of Thibet and Bokhara, or 
the Arab on the south, never excite similar affections, nor feel 
themselves yearning for approximation. 



388 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



THE PELASGIAN, DORIAN, AND HELLENIC TRIBES. 

Although Ionia or Asia Minor was visited from the most 
early period by nations coming from the east, some by a north- 
ern, and others by a southern route, we may regard the popu-^ 
lation in general as emanating from the foregoing, and in 
particular the Pelasgian and the Dorian tribes, which, how- 
ever, may have been mixed with a proportion of Getic clans, 
such as the Phrygian undoubtedly were. 

It is likely that the Carians were similarly of a mixed origin 
of the same source, as they were remarkable for the hoarse 
guttural language they spoke, and the resolute determination 
they evinced in the defence of their countr}^ As colonists 
they had brought with them elements of civilization more 
advanced than the Grecian of the same era, and science in 
the art of war that made them more than respected by the 
Egyptian power, which, indeed, had warred with them, but 
appears to have preferred to have them as allies. They seem 
to have possessed the whole valley of the Meander long after 
the adjoining tribes had been driven onwards, probably because 
the volcanic territory at the sources of the river afforded sites 
for strongholds which guarded the passes. They and the 
Lycians had connections with the Leuco Syri, as well as with 
the Greek Pelasgians ; and some such remote affinity may 
have been the basis of the claim to consanguinity, which, ages 
after, appears to have been allowed between the Hebrews and 
the Spartans, as is attested by Josephus. 

Among the expelled nations, the Hellenes may have been 
the foremost who crossed the Bosphorus, and made conquests 
of the possessions then held by a Finnic, or lUyrian race, 
which, as myrmidons and helots, we have already noticed ; for 
that these were in anterior possession of the soil is attested by 
their subjugation, and by the name of the river Alpheus, evi- 
dently derived from the Finnic Alf, a mountain torrent. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 389 

The Hellenic tribes could not have been long in the land 
before the great swarming commenced on the seas and coasts 
of Eastern Europe. Besides the Cyclopeans, who left walls 
of their work from Van in Persia westward to Sicily, and the 
Punes, or Phoenicians already mentioned, others, like the Cad- 
means, Etruscans, and Colchians, wandered along the shores, 
from beneath the high lands of the present Abassia, or came 
under Ionian Taurus to the Mediterranean, all similarly bent 
upon forcing a landed possession for themselves, and subsist- 
ing meantime as sea-roving pirates. The names of the Cen- 
taurs and Lapith^ indicate confusion in the Greek reminis- 
cences ; for, although they explained the first to have been 
horsemen, it is more likely that they were ox-riders, such as 
have been already mentioned in Africa and India, and that their 
name has passed to a second invasion of real cavalry. 

But the Thraco-Pelasgians, the Heraclidae, and Achaei, 
seem to have been Celto Scythse, that is, likewise of Illyrian 
or Geto Finnic affinity, belonging to the giant races, who, as 
far as regards the two first mentioned, came round from the 
Kouban and Don, along the shores of the Euxine, and then 
sought conquests towards the south, as all the more northern 
nations were impelled to undertake. On their own national 
origin, the accounts by Greek writers are confused and contra- 
dictory regarding the sources and movements of the different 
tribes of the nation ; and vanity claims aboriginal possession 
where they were only early conquerors. They commemorate 
Pelasgian and Dorian invasions coming from the north, while 
they do not seem to acknowledge that the anterior Hellenic col- 
onists were, like the myrmidons and other tribes, a vanquished 
people, who may have had Finnic consanguinities. The pres- 
ence of tribes from the Asia Minor region is shown in the 
Cretan colonies settled in Greece, and in the Cretan people 
themselves, who could not have reached that island more 
conveniently than by crossing from Caria, by Rhodes and 



390 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Carpathos ; for even the maritime shore of Caria was called 
Doria. 

Notwithstanding that polished Greece claimed to be in the 
centre of the world, and assumed for itself the discovery of 
almost every element of knowledge and civilization, it had a 
secret pride in the pretence that the Cadmeans and Thebans 
were colonies from Egypt; and it may be conceded, that in the 
wanderings of the parent clans of those denominations, they 
had been to the south so far, as to remain for a period in the 
then unclaimed marshes of the Delta, or had resided some 
time on the coast of Palestine or Syria, which was on many 
occasions considered as a portion of Egypt. But on the banks 
of the Nile no civil war, historically known, brought vanquished 
fugitives to the north ; they fled to Abyssinia, or westward 
towards Cyrene. No true Egyptian was ever known to travel 
northward, though Greek students and philosophers constantly 
went in search of knowledge to the regions of the Nile, or 
eastward even to the Indus. The slight resemblance of the 
Greek Theban rites with those of Egyptian Thebes was more 
likely a consequence of Hellenic importation ; and the Cad- 
mean Python worship was derived from the same source as 
the Colchian and the Celtic, that is, came direct from the east. 
The alphabet was totally distinct, and the language of Cadmus, 
if not Semitic, was allied to Sanscrit. 

The Pelasgi, more properly so called, had resided on the 
coast of Asia Minor. If we take a Celto Scythic dialect to 
have been in use among them, the tribal names of Cranai in 
Hellas, as well as that of Cieropidas, might have reference to 
their migratory life in boa(s, while the general appellation 
may have indicated the character they assumed of heroes or. 
champions, it being alike traceable in the Pelhevi, Pelwan, and 
the Celtic Pulvan, although, if the denomination had a more 
Gothic root, the Pelasgi would merely denote skin-clad Asi, 
nearly the same signification as that of Seeapush Kaufir, and 
peltry-wearing heroes — a term in later ages applied to the 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 391 

Goths themselves. The Achsei, though they claimed to be of 
the Pelasgian family, and the oldest of Greek colonists in Eu- 
rope, came from the Maeotic estuary near Colchis. They 
were, as the name indicates, serpent worshippers, or builders of 
Dracontia, like the Cadmeans, the Colchians, and other nations 
of Asia Minor. 

THE TIRYNTHIANS. 

The Tirynthians, referred to the Cyclopean race, seem to 
have been a still more early clan of the Pelasgian family ; 
and it may be remarked that a fair-haired nation, with a blue 
round tribal spot painted between the eyebrows, is represented 
on Egyptian monuments, wearing mantles of peltry, appar- 
ently cow hides — a costume which corroborates the meaning 
of Pelasgians ; but as they wear ostrich feathers in the hair, 
it is evident that these figures refer to clans who had forced 
their way to the south of the mountain chains ; and, if they do 
not represent giant tribes of Palestine, that they possessed ter- 
ritory in Mesopotamia, and belonged to that Teutonic race 
which mixed early with the Arabs before noticed. These 
observations are not opposed by the actions of the legendary 
Hercules at Tiryns. The Heraclidae were of the same Pelas- 
gian stem ; and if the name be a mutation of Erck, Erk, they 
may be fairly referred to the Giant Finns, whose tribes consti- 
tuted the Tyrhenians, the Raseni, and the subsequent conquer- 
ors of the north-west of Europe. 

The Ionian name is of later introduction in Greece ; it was 
probably before known in Asia Minor, although, if we trust 
Greek pretensions, they carried it from Europe to Asia. The 
European Greeks had, however, anteriorly been known by the 
name of ^gialeans, or coasters, which is an evident proof that 
at first they only occupied the sea coast, and, consequently, that 
they had come by water, and not across the Danube, through 
Thessaly. Among these, the Cretan colony led by Rhadaman- 
thus, whose name indicates a Getic origin, had settled in Bceo- 



392 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

tia. Tiryns itself was the abode of fishermen, and Argos was 
built by Cyclopeans, notwithstanding that Euripides calls it 
Pelasgian. This last name appears to be more generical than 
the other, and to have superseded it, though it is not improba- 
ble that the Cyclopeans were likewise a distinct tribe of the 
family which was soon driven forward to Sicily, where we 
have already pointed out that they appear to have been con- 
nected with the Finns of High Asia, in their quality of miners 
and metallurgists. In connection with the kindred Siculi, 
they had settlements on the coast of Italy, and with the Sicani, 
another clan of the same stock, had penetrated to Liguria and 
Spain. In Greece, the Pelasgians appear to have constituted 
the chief portion of the historical dominant population. They 
were most numerous in Thessaly. The Perhaebians, Caucones, 
Dolopians, Athamanes, the Helli, and Graii, on the west coast 
of Epirus, were Pelasgi. The Pseonian and the Cecropian 
Athenians were of the same stock. In the peninsula they 
were known by the names of Argives, Achaians, and Arca- 
dians. They built more than one Argos ; and if the name of 
Larissa is to be taken as a sure indication of their presence, they 
would be found extended from Nineveh to the confines of Egypt, 
Spain, and Southern Germany. There were Pelasgians in 
Crete, and the western tribes of the race had Finnic affinities 
in Upper Italy, not less than at least a partial community of 
opinions and speech with the Celtic and Scytho Celtic nations. 
In Syria they may have constructed the enormous ramparts 
of Tortosa with stones, some of which are not less than thirty 
feet in length, by ten or twelve in thickness, and at so remote 
a date that the place is named, in Genesis, by the designation 
of Arpad, or Arvedi, (chap, x.) 

Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, being all to the north of 
Greece properly so called, and west of the Bosphorus, nations 
moving to the south came across the Danube, from Dacia, as 
w^ell as from Asia Minor, without the route of their movement 
being known in Greece. Many came westward in fleets of 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. ' 393 

canoes, from the Euxine and the coasts of Asia Minor, by 
Rhodes, Carpathos, Casos, and Crete, and therefore they became 
greatly mixed by the captives they made in piratical wars, as 
well as by peaceful alliances. The noble typical races that 
had come direct from the east, had been broken in upon dur- 
ing the march by northern and by southern wanderers, and 
forced to deviate from the line of progress by deserts, inland 
seas, and chains of mountains. Still the characteristic supe- 
riority of aspect remained, even to the furthest marine colo- 
nies they carried to eastern Italy, and to Massilia in Gaul ; 
and their intermixture was a further cause of the high civili- 
zation they soon attained ; for national prejudices broke down 
by communion w'ith other tribes, and the bigotry of conflicting 
superstitions, unable to establish particular supremacy for one, 
adopted a general amalgamation of the whole. Hyperborean 
gods and Egyptian gods were blended. The recondite sym- 
bols, pregnant with meaning in the east, became west of the 
Hellespont mere fables and physical personifications, attractive 
to a people petulant with a luxuriant fancy, and so elegant in 
poetical worship, that it passed to other and more gross condi- 
tions of society, such as the northern Africans and the Ro- 
mans ; it spread among Celtse, Iberians, and Getae ; all striving 
to recognize their own divinities in the disguised physicalities 
that came thus recommended from a polished people. 



THE ROMANS. 

The western Pelasgians, sometimes considered as the 
descendants of two great colonies coming from Thessaly and 
Arcadia, penetrated very early to Italy, a land which looms on 
the horizon from the heights of Acroceraunus. In both coun- 
tries we detect the same names of tribes and places, such as 
Chaones, Elysinians, Siceles, Acheron, Dodona, Pandoria, &c.; 
and if we judge the affinity of nations by their mode of build- 
ing with huge stones, even the Etruscans were in part of this 



894 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Stock, the rest being lUyrian or Finnic, as we have already 
noticed. The Pelasgian element, no doubt, furnished the basis 
of all the arts and legends, which we find they possessed in 
an eminent degree ; and the huge stone-built ramparts of 
many cities in Italy, as well as Epirus, Greece, Crete, and 
Asia Minor, attest the work of kindred civilization. Among 
these, Rome itself was a frontier fortress in the Campania, not 
improbably known by a name equivalent to Valentia, before it 
received the present denomination, which, it may be observed, 
means the same thing in one of the dialects spoken among 
the Latin tribes. Valentia was probably derived from the 
same root as Valum and the Teutonic Walle. The Pelasgians 
left also colonies at Norba, and among the Volsci, Hernici, 
Marsi, and Sabini, tribes having all names and characteristics 
of a Getic infusion in their dialects, and indications which 
show, like the first named in particular, affinity with the Belgic 
Gauls, chiefly with the Volsci, Tectosages, and Arecomici. 
The word Volsci, Velkoe, Wilci, Teutonic Volke, is generical 
for people ; and the different tribes had each a particular desig- 
nation. That of Italy was known by the appellation of Aurunci, 
from Awe, the Vale, or open country ; and the two others, as 
above, had names equally resolvable into Teutonic meanings. 
Nor is this singular, since Teutames is the oldest known hero 
of the Pelasgian race who ruled on the coast of Caria ; and 
Hera, a goddess revered at Samos, may denote simply the 
Lady, and be the same as Hertha, Ertha, or Orsiloche, in Tau- 
ris. There are the names of Circe (Kirke), and Palaces, the 
double divinity and pillar gods of a great number of nations ; 
with many others, all derived from Getic, or Teutonic 
dialects. The Romans, properly speaking, did hot com- 
pose a homogeneous race. They were, still more than the 
Greek people, a compound of many tribes, it is true, more or 
less remotely allied, but still concentrated on the Tiber from 
distant quarters, the result of distinct colonies and successive 
arrivals. Among these, the so-called Trojan basis of the 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 395 

Roman population is not more authentic than that of Ante- 
nor on the coast of the Adriatic, though popular legends are 
seldom without some basis of truth ; and that Asia Minor con- 
tributed several tribes of migrators to different parts of Italy, 
can scarcely be disputed. 

Of all the Roman nobility, the Julian family alone was con- 
sidered to be of indigenous origin ; the rest were Pelasgi, 
Etruscans, Sabines, Siculi, and others from the hills, whose 
parentage is unknown. Although they were mixed with fair- 
haired tribes, the aspect, profile, and structure of the Roman, 
has greater resemblance to the Persic aquiline-featured race 
than to a Celto Scythic type, notwithstanding that the Arabian 
name for the people, probably derived from the appearance of 
the majority of the foreign garrisons in the eastern empire, in 
general composed of northern levies, was Beni Asfar, that is, 
fair-haired, " as of Esau." If any relics of the Roman physi- 
ognomy be now traceable within the boundaries of the once 
mighty state, they must be sought among the mob population 
of the city beyond the Tiber, known as the Transteverini ; for 
they still bear the animal square-built form, observable in the 
statues of ancient Romans, with the aquiline features and deep- 
set eyes, bespeaking power and daring. Elsewhere they have 
vanished, and they never can have been numerically prominent 
where there was more of a class population than a real nation- 
ality ; Rome, during the degradation of the empire, becoming 
a city of foreigners, and the older civic inhabitants scattered 
oyer every part of the empire, in search of lucrative office, or 
possessing all excepting the military, which was exclusively in 
the hands of strangers. The true Romans had therefore disap- 
peared before the state itself was extinguished, and, even in 
Constantinople, scarcely a family of Roman descent appears 
prominent during the eastern empire. 



396 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



THE CELTIC NATIONS, 

Often designated by the appellation of Gomerians, may be 
regarded as amongst the very earliest migrators that left the 
high lands of central Asia, and moved not only in tribes towards 
the west, but likewise, as we have before shown, penetrated to 
the extremity of India ; and if we accept as theirs the monu- 
mental structures, composed of very large stones, placed in a 
particular form, such as are exemplified by what are known 
in Europe by the term Druidical, they certainly visited the 
South Seas and the coasts of China, and penetrated to North 
America. By what inducement they became a nautical peo- 
ple in the east, and under what denominations they were 
known in Austral Asia, are questions probably beyond the 
attainment of research. It is, however, rather singular that 
the tribal appellation of Gal is common to many clans of Aus- 
tralian savages ; and Galla is still more extensively spread in 
the east of tropical Africa. In the peninsula of India, we have 
pointed out the Pandoos of remotest antiquity, with their crom- 
lechs, and an Arkite worship evinced in their genealogy ; and, 
towards the west, we have them often greatly mixed with other 
races, in Armenia, Circassia, Asia Minor, Ancient Greece, the 
Bosphorus of Thrace, Sarmatia on the Baltic, in Scandinavia, 
on the Danube, in Friesland, in Britain, Gaul, Italy, Spain, and 
Northern Africa. They are thus known by distinctive names, 
Celto Scytha3, Celto Cimmerians, Cymbers, Be]ga3, Vulci, or 
Volsci, Centomanni, Celtiberii, Gallaici, Gallati, Galli, Galli 
Comati, Galli Cisalpini, Britanni, Caledonii, Iberii, Hiberni, 
with an infinite variety of tribal distinctions, and names of sub- 
ordinate clans. Collectively, they have been named Gome- 
rians, perhaps without sufficient reason, though we retain the 
distinction, so far as relates to tribes of this family anciently 
resident in the south and west of Asia ; but as there are nu- 
merous indications that among the first migratory tribes por- 
tions, such as the Cimmerii and Cymbri, directed their course 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 39T 

to the north-west, and mixed, to a great extent, with Finnic 
and Getic nations ; we are desirous of distinguishing them 
from all others, collectively, as Celto Scythse, or Celto Finnic, 
and more distinctly, by substituting one or the other of the 
above names. Their probable movement down the Oxus, and 
passage to the Oural mountains, and thence by Russia, Poland, 
the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Denmark, into Friesland and Bel- 
gium, has already been partially noticed ; and taking the so- 
called Celtic mode of erecting monuments, altars, and tombs, 
with huge stones, on the surface of the earth, or hidden in 
cairns and barrows, as proof of their presence, we have in 
more than one place pointed out that they must have been sea- 
men on more than one occasion, have traversed great portions 
of the South Seas, and left the evidence of their toils on the 
coasts of China as well as America.=^ That these massive 
structures are not the chance-work of races of unallied nations, 
is plain, from the fact, that among nearly one hundred and fifty 
cromlechs, logging-stones, masses of unwrought rock, cleared 
away to constitute them into colossal idols, circles of stones, 
parallellitha of linear or curve-linear ranges of upright stones, 
single maen stones, mysterious caves for worship or initiation, 
shealings, &c., the greater part whereof we possess drawings, 
we find that they are placed more or less in certain territorial 
regions, where they form groups or lines leading from one to 
another. Thus, in particular, those bearing the character of 
cromlechs pass down the west side of the Indus to the sea ; 
then divide, one line eastward, following the coast to the Coim- 
batoor as before noticed, and further on to China and the islands 
of the Pacific; while the other, forming two branches, one 
follows the mountain chain to the Caspian, the other by the 
Helrnund, through the desert of Iran to Persepolis, and up the 
Tigris, till it meets the first on the high land of Armenia, where 

* In the atlas of Messrs. Q,uoy and Gaimard there are some delinea- 
tions of these seeming Celtic structures in the South Seas not before 
noticed, 

84 



398 NATURAL HISTORY OP 

they become directly referable to Cyclopean and other Celto 
Finnic tribes, and pass from both coasts of Asia Minor along 
the two shores of the Mediterranean, up the west coast of 
Spain, and by the Alps and Cevennes down the Loire to the 
sea, where both unite again, and then skirt the ocean towards 
the north, cross over into Britain, the final extension ending in 
Norway ."^ With the exception of a few observed in the Uni- 
ted States, no monuments of this class are detected in any 
other direction. If we now inquire from whence the construc- 
tors of these peculiar monuments originated, it is clear, that 
tracing them back to the points whence they branch off, and 
then further up to the ultimate limit where they are found, 
though even then there may be traces of them not as yet dis- 
covered, we have a proximate solution that they commence 
either beyond the crest of the central high land of Asia, or at 
least that they are to be found about the Indus, before that 
stream escapes to the open plain ; that is, again, about Hindu- 
Koosh, and in the vicinity of certain significant local names, 
such as Penghir (Pen-y-ghir), Carura, &c., bearing Celtic 
meanings. It is the region west of high Kashgar, north-west 
of Cashmere, the vicinity of the first known station of the 
Pandoos, or Pandei. It is near the first great central sacred 
troglodyte city, Bamean (Adrepsa), and not far to the north 
from the first commencement and divergences of the character- 
istic cromlechs ; for it is along the southern flank of the Paro- 
pamisus that they pass on northward to Armenia, while another 
descends the Indus to the sea, and thence branches both eastward 
and to the interior of Southern Persia. From this vicinity we 
find also that the oldest pagan diluvian legends have radiated ;t 

* We have thought it right to repeat a part of what had already been 
stated on this head, because here, in particular, it connects the various 
tribes of this common family. 

t Compare the third Avatar, where Prithivi' complains to Vishnou, 
with Davies' " Celtic Researches." Appendix, "Preiddeu," "Anmon." 
Still more, No. 12, of ditto, page 563, where some lines appear to be 
Etruscan. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 3^9 

for those of America, of the South Seas, of Tahtarj^ and 
of the north and west of the old continent, are all cognizant 
of the Dragon formula, the Dragon fish, the serpent devour- 
ing the sun, the moon, and the woman, type of reproductive 
animal nature, by which the mysterious doctrine is con- 
veyed. 

We find the legends of an Eden, a city of the gods, an 
oasis of bliss, v.dth its four rivers, equally mystified and dis- 
torted, from the Brahmaputra to Ireland, and a succession of 
Ararats, from the Himalaya chain to Snowdon.^ From India 
to the German Ocean, there are at least eleven, with a series 
of subordinate localities, more or less complete, assimilated to 
the narrative of the Pentateuch, in proportion as the Hebrew 
Scriptures had been accessible, and in particular among the 
Arab nations, rekindled by the spreading of the Koran. In 
point of date, it is known, that both in Italy and Britain the 
Celts were possessed of the soil before their husbandry was 
acquainted with either barley or wheat corn ; acorns were the 
sole farinaceous food then known. Greek and Latin classics 
relate the travels of Ceres, and lessons of Triptolemus, as 
well as Welsh poets the first introduction of cerealia in 
Britain. 

Enough has been said in former pages respecting the move- 
ments of the most eastern branch of these colonists ; their wars, 

* Pagan tradition scarcely separates the creation from the diluvian 
legends ; paradise from their cities of the gods and primeval abode of 
man ; their umbilicus, or navel of the world, from the mountains of God, 
of the descent, of the deluge and the ship ; a locality usually made the 
centre of the world, according to the position of each nation asserting that 
doctrine, and accordingly by each surrounded with sacred rivers and hal- 
lowed localities, without therefore being in the least scrupulous about 
geographical truth or much coincidence of opinion. Scriptural commen- 
tators on the geographical relations of Assyria and Persia with the high 
lands of Asia, have generally sought the easternmost in Armenia instead 
of Bactria, though profane history and research agree in the fact, that 
these two regions have been in constant relations of war, trade, migration, 
and conquest. 



400 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

probably of several ages' duration in the peninsula of India, and 
of others still more remote in date, who appear to have reached 
the south-east coast of China, and traversed a great portion of 
the Pacific. There were others whose early presence in 
Africa is detected by a variety of customs among the Abys- 
sinian and even Caffre nations, which we have likewise no 
further occasion to mention. Of the tribes of Shelluhs in 
Morocco, whose Showiah dialect is asserted to retain many 
Celtic words, it is not requisite to say more than what has 
already been stated, excepting that the existence of cromlechs 
and maen stones along the coast, such as the Romans noticed 
by the names of Philaenian altars, and the ancients likewise 
attest to have existed on the island of Cadiz, or Gades, in 
Spain, are of themselves sufficient proof of a primeval coast- 
ing progress along the African shore, which, leaving colonies 
in Mauritania, now, it may be, mixed with Shelluh tribes, 
turned northward, marking its progress in Portugal by the 
usual monuments, and by the name of Portugal itself, as well 
as that of Gallicia (land of the Gallaici), where they came in 
contact with the Finns or Finno-Celts, from the north, whose 
progress we have already mentioned. 

We now come to the march of the main body of the Celtee, 
from their first departure, divided into two great columns, 
one directing its course to the northward of west, and the 
other appearing to have followed the southern flanks of the 
great mountain chain, through Armenia and Asia Minor, to 
Europe. It is this movement westward, of successive tribes of 
the family, which has commonly been designated as the Gome- 
rian. Josephus first made this application to the race in ques- 
tion from the tenth chapter of Genesis. We may retain the 
name, without entering into the truth of the Jewish historian's 
derivation; particularly when restricting the meaning to the 
portion of this great stem which passed through Middle Asia ; 
because the word may be construed to imply mountaineers in 
one set of cognate languages, and in another it may be derived, 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 401 

with little mutation, from Guomo, Homo, which was doubtless 
in use among the Pelasgians, a somewhat kindred nation, that 
passed and dwelt along the same line of migration.^ It sig- 
nifies merely man or men, the common appellation of a multi- 
tude of ancient tribes in Scythic dialects, or those which we 
take to be offspring of that common tongue of High Asia, the 
Sanscrit, before it became a polished vehicle of knowledge in 
the centre of the ancient world. 

If the tribes which followed the most southern route, such, 
for example, as that by the Helmund, towards the region where 
Persepolis and Susa were afterwards built, had black eyes and 
curly hair, like every race that came in contact with the Ethi- 
opian stem ; those which followed the course more directly 
west, along the flank of the mountains, where their monu- 
ments are still visible, were more probably a blue-eyed people, 
with brown hair, and full muscular structure; nationally 
graziers (gwallah), and possessing that basis of traditions 
which they afterwards carried with them to Gaul and Britain. 
In a pure state, or already in commixture with tribes of Finnic 
origin, we find them in Armenia; tribes reckoned among the 
giant conquerors, penetrating into Syria and Arabia, and the 
main columns possessing Colchis and Asia Minor, where the 
rivers Sangarius and Gallus (Halys), with other remote Celtic 
denominations, attest that they once resided. If the Milesians 
have a true claim to Celtic consanguinity, they penetrated to 
the Borysthenes, and built Olbio, where the sturgeon fishery, 
corn husbandry, and weaving fine cloths from hemp, had 
formed a flourishing community in the time of Herodotus, or 
B. C. 460. But this date is several ages posterior to the first 

* There are other derivations, or. the same, reversing the meaning, as 
is constantly the case in cognate languages, such as the Celtic Combe, a 
valley, and Teutonic Kam, a crest ; for in both we may have the radical 
meaning of Cumraeg, Cymbri, Cumbers, Cumbrians, Cambrians, Cam- 
brivii, Cambresians, Kumbers, Kempers, Kempenners, Kennermers, 
Cimmerians, &c. See also Cuma, in many localities. — Steph. Byzant. 

34^ 



402 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Celtic irruption across the Taurine Alps in Italy ; since that 
event preceded the conquests of the Gauls, B. C. about 600, 
when they established themselves in the Cisalpine territory, an 
event which was said to be the consequence of over population 
already accumulated in Transalpine Gaul, and therefore at 
least many generations after their first arrival. Over popula- 
tion certainly could not well have been the true cause of 
expatriation ; for several whole tribes of Belgae, and the Allo- 
brogi, had not yet relinquished the north of the Rhine and 
Danube. Now these denominations in Theotisk had only two 
meanings ; Volke, as before said, denoting a people, in contra- 
distinction to Geschlecht and Stam, which were applied to 
homogeneous clans or tribes; and Gela, Gaul, Gael, by the 
Celtic nations always understood to designate strangers, 
foreigners, because most probably they also were partly mixed 
tribes ; the same originally as those who were known by the 
collective appellations of Belgae, Centomanni, Celtomanni, &c., 
and only bore the general epithet of Gauls among the Celtae 
properly so called. This appellation was pronounced by them- 
selves and the Teutonic race, Wael, Welsh, Velsche, only a 
dialectical variation from Wilci (wolves). If the Gelas of the 
Caspian coast were of the same stem, we have a geographical 
indication that the Celto Scythic, or perhaps Celto Finnic 
tribes, extended so far towards the north-east as the Araxes ; 
and though the Phrygian, Gallae, the emasculated priesthood 
of the Syrian Goddess, renowned for circular dances and 
choral songs, may not have been Gallic by race, the presump- 
tion is, that they, or the institutions they observed, came from 
the banks of the above named Phrygian rivers, where the 
whole region was at one time Celtic. To that quarter a Gallic 
army from the west, having ravaged Greece, was, ages after, 
again invited, and there the forces, so far from wearing out in 
a short period, as armies invariably do on all other occasions, 
they multiplied to a nation, which was still flourishing at the 
commencement of the Christian era, under the name of Gala- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 403 

tians. Though mutilation was not practised by the Western 
Celtse who followed Druidical institutions, the vociferation of 
the many epithets of Hu, and the spinning dance " in graceful 
extravagance," according to Taliesin, was well known to them; 
they had even the ecstatic visions of the Syrian Galli, perhaps 
the very same as the Howling Dervishes, who repeat the 
ninety-nine perfections of Allah, and their brethren, the twirl- 
ing fanatics of the mosque of Ayoub, who perform the like 
dances, and fall into similar fits of frenzy and exhaustion. 

A multitude of other coincidences can be traced relating 
to the highest developed religious system of the Celtse in 
Western Europe, the more perfect, probably, because, through 
Phoenician agency, the dogmas of Palestine and Syria had 
been carried westward rapidly, and more unbroken, by nautical 
colonists. No Soubt an intercourse of consanguinity continued 
to exist between, both, since the Galatians had returned east- 
w^ard and established themselves a second time in a focus of 
their ancient possessions, where there were around them inter- 
minable denominations of places bestowed by their ancestors ; 
and it is likely a proportion of the population still recognized 
them as relatives. The southern clans, having, in their most 
early communion with Indo-Arab neighbors, acquired that 
dialect which might be termed Celto Semitic, probably pos- 
sessed the most recondite lore of Western Asia, reduced to a 
homogeneous system. It was that which abounded in Hebrew 
or Syriac terms : proceeding by sea, it carried the traditions 
and philosophy of the east to the coasts of Great Britain, 
destined to be set up first as indigenous ; later, to accept 
numerous grafts from the same quarter, brought by Punic 
traders ; and, finally, to prepare the west to accept the tidings 
of the Gospel without that resolute opposition which Greek 
and Roman civilization so long opposed to Christianity. The 
Celto Semitic race is still distinctly marked in Spain, Corn- 
wall, and Wales, by a more spare make, black curly hair, very 
dark eyes, and brown complexions, frequently set off with 



404 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

bright red lips. It is a spirited race, gifted with the highest 
imaginative power, serious, thoughtful, religious, obstinate, 
attached to its own nationalities, and, though in many cases 
proved to have been a marine people, nowhere really fond of a 
sea life. Such are the true Cymraeg, the Siluri of Tacitus, 
abounding in Wales : in Cornwall they are ofttimes named 
Cadisians, from a legend that their ancestors came from the 
coast of Spain ; and local names indicate the antique presence 
of Punic and Hebrew colonists and mining speculators, who 
understood the value of the Cornish ores so well, that, to the 
age of King Henry III., Jews still were the parties that farmed 
the right of stream working and mining from the crown. It 
is probable that the Hibernian Coomary, sea-dogs, or seals, 
likewise connected with legends of Galilean origin, and the so- 
called Milesians, belong to the same stock, notwithstanding 
that their remote ancestors may have resided on the northern 
shore of the Euxine, as before stated. The name may even be 
traced as far as Bactria, among the present Rajpoots, celebrated 
in the Rhamayana for their horses ; and Khomen still reside at 
the Bay of Cambogia in Siam. 

In Gaul the brown-haired tribes prevail, though dark-eyed 
families are exceedingly abundant, and the whole are inter- 
mixed with Finns, Alans, Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, 
who, nevertheless, though they were mostly nations of real 
horsemen, have never been enabled to make the Celtic people 
either in Italy, Gaul, or Catalonia, more than transitorily 
addicted to a cavalry life, or formidable for their squad- 
rons, notwithstanding that the antique institution of the tri- 
marchesia,^ and the Gallic Alae in the Roman service, seem 
to prove the contrary ; at all times this species of renown was 
due only through the Belgic, Allemannic, and Prankish influ- 

* Or three horsemen combined ; Tri-march-cesec, a master and two 
attendants, according to Pausanias ; but if there was but one horse and 
two foot soldiers, the institution was bad. We must allow that the 
Polish lancers and the Spahis were once formed upon this principle. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 405 

ence in the national manners. The characteristic temperament 
was ever stimulated by momentary objects, unsteady, factious, 
often frivolous, always brave, witty, and improvident. This 
great stem of nations could never permanently arrest the 
steady progress of the Teutonic and Getic tribes, which 
gradually forced them westward, then mixed with them, 
became a privileged class of rulers, or adulterated the Celtic 
blood and language ; such were the Gallic, the first and second 
Belgic tribes, the Centomanni, the Boii, the Allobroges, and 
lastly the Cymber or Friesonic, which were nearly pure Ger- 
mans. The intermixture, in proportion as it increased, gave 
firmness, and those enduring qualities which finally arrested 
the pressure of the Getic races, and they resembled them in 
person and in language, as is proved by the Franks, the Si- 
cambers and Frankonians, or east Franks on the German side 
of the Rhine, and by the Saxons and Northmen in the British 
Islands. After they had been subjugated by the Romans, the 
Danube and the Rhine were both wrested from them by these 
amalgamated tribes ; they sank before the Vandals, the Goths, 
the Burgundians, the Franks, the Saxons, and the Northmen, 
in every quarter except the Highlands of Scotland and a por- 
tion of Ireland. These, with Wales, a small part of French 
Bretagne, and the Alpine Vaudois, are now the sole portions 
of the race which still retain the pride of their nationality, 
their ancient language, and their traditions. 

That they all came from the east is perhaps sufficiently 
shown. We have pointed out the routes followed by the migra- 
tory columns, and their stations in Armenia and Western 
Asia ; their early blending with Finnic or Ural-Altaic tribes, 
probably on the Caspian coast, constituting a portion of the 
lUyrian branch of Eastern Europe. They seem still to retain 
possession of a portion of territory on the Danube, under the 
name of Wallachians (for the claim of that people to an Italian 
or Roman origin is no other than that the Italians are denom- 
inated Velches by the Southern Allemannic and Sclavonic 



406 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

nations), though by that name they acknowledge themselves 
actually to belong to the Celtic family. They may be the 
Celtse which Alexander found on the Ister, according to 
Arrian, and be the Triballi of Roman history. Further on we 
observed that wandering tribe, the Boii, in the present Bavaria, 
the same which once occupied Bohemia, and left two colonies 
in Gaul, whereof one, seated at the Teste de Buch, near the 
mouth of the Garonne, had for hereditary Vergobret, roman- 
ized into Captal de Buch, Jean de Grailly, the last of the 
family, who was, in the reign of Edward III., the fifth Knight 
of the Garter, at the foundation of the order. This very title 
of Buch, their tribal name of Bougers, and their silent wood- 
land manners, attest that they were not pure Celts, but, like 
other fair-haired Boii of the north, Belgae or Semi-Germans.^ 
Besides the possession of Bohemia, Celtic tribes long held 
Galicia in Spain ; others, from the Tauric Chersonesus, passed 
up the rivers and swamps of Sarmatian Galicia and the 
Baltic, where they came in contact with Illyrian or Finnic 
Veneti. Passing over to Sweden and Norway, they built up 
the usual monuments of their presence, and left some portion 
of their dogmas to the first conquering Getae; thence they 
edged down by the Cymbric Chersonesus, along the west 
coast of Germany, and began to force their way into Northern 
Gaul, at least one century before the Roman conquest. They 
dislodged the first Belgse, who, not finding space for habitation 
on the Continent, formed the two well known irruptions into 
Britain. They extended themselves along the southern coast, 
reached the British Channel, and passed over to Ireland, 
where they formed the Firbolg tribes, who, at a later period, 
encountered the Finnic Celts in the northern portion of the 
island. Taking the Irish Firbolg to be descended from the 

♦ In the letters of St. Paulinus, addressed to the poet Ausonius, there 
are some details of the manners of these Boii. At present they are col- 
lectors of rosin in the pine forests of that sandy region, and characteristi- 
cally possess a breed of vigorous feral horses. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 407 

first Belgic branch (that which was expelled by the second 
Belgae, who secured for themselves the sea-coast and the valley 
of the Rhine), we may regard them as the purest Celtse now 
remaining. They still much resemble the Vaudois, the lUyrian 
Lombards, and the Walloon population, even more than that 
of Lower Brittany. The Irish are in form athletic, rather spare 
and wiry ; the forehead is narrow, and the head itself is elon- 
gated ; the nose and mouth large, and the cheek-bones high. 
The features are rather harsh ; and in character they are fiery, 
brave, generous in their impulses, and very patient of fatigue. 
Intellectually considered, they are acute, witty, ingenious, but 
beset with the sense of drollery more than of the true and use- 
ful ; they are deficient in sobriety of thought and breadth of 
understanding; they consequently want more excitement for 
action and enduring reflecting power than the Getic family of 
nations seems to require. The Finnic Celtee were the jfirst 
northern marine wanderers, who, having attained the Scottish 
and Irish coasts, constituted the Gael Coch, or red-haired stran- 
gers of Scandinavian origin, and first taught the pursuing Getae 
— in part their kindred — to follow them to the south, under 
the name of Northmen and Ostmen. 

The Cymbers were perhaps the last colony from the north 
that had consanguinity with the CeltaB ; they broke into Gaul 
B. C. 108, penetrated to Spain, and, in alliance with Teutonic 
tribes, they were at length vanquished in the plains of Italy, 
after they had destroyed several consular armies.^ In Britain, 
as already stated, there were a greater diversity of races than 
is commonly admitted, besides a nameless population of rav- 
ages, probably Finnic, in possession of the coast when the 
Celtae first landed. There were among these, and protected 
by the Hedui, the Veneti (Henyd) and Ligurians (Llogrwys), 

* They routed, between B. C. 302 and 307, the armies of Papyrius, of 
Silanus, of Cassius Longinus, and of Caepio and Mallius, who were loaded 
with the Celtic treasures of Tolosa, once plundered by the Gauls at 
Grecian Delphos. 



408 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

who, we have shown, had, through their lUyrian origin, like- 
wise Finnic affinities ; the purer Celtse, such as the Morini and 
the nautical clans coming from the coast of Spain, and the 
BelgsB of Semi-Teutonic origin, such as the Cantii and others 
occupying the east coast of Britain. The intercommunication 
of knowledge and civilization among tribes, who, in different 
parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, had been in contact with 
nations far more advanced in the arts of life, some perhaps, 
with little delay, passing west in their coracles the whole dis- 
tance from the regions of Phoenicia and Carthage to Britain, 
brought dogmas, such as the religious and moral dicta of the 
Druids attest. They had, no doubt, possession of rudiments of 
literature and reminiscences of science, and, reaching a home 
rich in mines, not only became miners and metallurgists — as 
more than one line of their progenitors had been in the east 
and in Spain — but, stimulated by the example of the Etruscans 
in the arts of smelting ores, they must have accelerated the 
progress of development, which inroads of new hordes, the 
tendency to intestine factions and open war, too often, and, in 
the end, too fatally arrested. 

This imprudent irritability of temperament caused the Celtic 
races, notwithstanding their military prowess, to be ever sub- 
dued and ruled by strangers, both in Asia and Eastern Europe, 
in Gaul and Britain. Without reference to the universally 
known facts in history, we may add one or two more not so 
commonly noticed. It was the Veneto-British fleet, defeated 
by Caesar's navy, off the mouth of the Seine, which produced 
the Roman invasion.=^ The struggles between the Christian 
municipal towns of foreign colonists left by the Romans, and 
the Pagan Reguli of native race, brought in the Caledonians 
and then the Saxoils. So, again, the force of 12,000 Britons 
under Prothamus (Pritham?), which crossed over to Gaul in 

* It was more likely a fleet of Gallic and British Veneti united, who 
fought D. Brutus in Q,uiberon Bay, in order to recover Vannes, Blavct, 
and Hennebon, all Honyd, or Venetic towns. 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 409 

457 to support the Emperor (Marjoriam?), stripped the island 
of its trained defenders, at the time the great Saxon invasion, 
was in progress;^ and, lastly, we find the name of Sawel ben 
Uchel, with his supporters, probably Belgae, taking part with, 
the Saxons in the overthrow of their own race. 

Language and religious doctrines were likewise different in 
the three great national divisions of the Celtae. In the north, 
the name of Druids, or rather Drotne, was a title of civil 
authority, perhaps even more than religious ; the Belgse had no 
Druids, but Seghers, speakers (sacerdotes of Tacitus) ; nor was 
the order known in Cisalpine Gaul, nor in the Iberian posses- 
sions of the race. Druidism seems to have been evolved on 
the banks of the Loire, and acquired the higher doctrines in 
the mining districts of Britain, by intercourse with the Phoeni- 
cian traders, until it was ready to accept a modified Christian- 
ity, like that Aurelius Ambrosius entertained, when he assumed 
the civil and military authority, with the office of chief Druid 
and that of Christian Bishop ! 

Though the French nation of the present time is in its vast 
majority of Celtic origin, there remain only the Bas Bretons 
who claim something of a pure descent. The Waldenses of 
the Alps are less distinct. The south-eastern Irish have a just 
claim to a Belgic origin, and the Cymraeg of Wales to a true 
southern Celtic parentage; while the Gael of the Scottish 
Highlands are probably Finnic Celts, who resided in Erin, till 
they were obliged to retire before the superior numbers of the 
Fir-bolg.t 

* This expedition may have given rise to the fabulous wars of Arthur 
on the continent. Prothamus is mentioned by Jornandes, Freculphus, and 
Sigebert of Gembloux. 

t It may be remarked here, that several Celtic terms are referred to 
Theotisk sources, because they belong to the Celto-Cymber and Belgic 
tribes, who, as Cassar asserts, spoke a distinct language ; and the roman- 
ized names of divinities prove to have been invariably of Teutonic, not 
Gallic origin, from the Rhine to beyond the Scheldt. 

35 



410 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



THE GETiE OR GOTHIC NATIONS. 

At length we attain the concluding family of nations. It is 
that stem, which, though later in reaching the Western Ocean, 
and, like the rest of the tribes that peopled Europe, though 
compelled to forsake High Asia, and quit the east, was des- 
tined nevertheless to hold dominion in Chinese Tahtary, ages 
after the other Caucasian nations had been expelled or exter- 
minated by the Mongoles. They likewise were early invaders 
of India, and are no doubt of the number of those which the 
Egyptian kings Remses and Thothmes, and the Assyrian 
Ninus, vainly endeavored permanently to subjugate, notwith- 
standing that they had the organized masses of great empires 
at their command, and the invaded mountaineers could not 
retreat towards the east. This stem of nations was, as it still 
is, the tall, fair, light, or red-haired portion of the Caucasian 
type, including the giant races of historical tradition. It ven- 
tured, in the remotest ages, in small clans, or by mere families, 
to penetrate far among the dark-haired nations, unsupported by 
numbers, and trusting solely to their fortitude and valor. The 
Mongolic, the Ural Altaic Finns, and the Indo Arab nations, 
have at all times acted by the weight of overwhelming num- 
bers, therein differing from the fair-haired tribes of mixed and 
of pure Caucasians, whose cool energy and self-reliance not 
only takes little account of numbers, but actually is the cause 
of small sovereignties, and even permanent republics, remain- 
ing independent to this day. We have in more than one place 
pointed out families, and clans of this great stem, assuming the 
absolute mastery of swarthy and of dark-haired nations, or 
becoming in a collective form the nobility, the privileged class, 
wherever they resided. An element of this kind, either in 
part Finnic, or purely Getic, blended in the earliest population 
of Greece, probably before the formation of the kingdom of 
Argos, eighteen centuries before the Christian era. The Her- 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 411 

aclidae were of the fair-haired stock, and so was Theseus, and 
indeed most of the demigod heroes of Greece ; at least that 
opinion in tradition is equivalent to an admission of the fact 
that the northern race prevailed among the Hellenes before 
their historical era. They came from Thrace, from Asia 
Minor ; and, in the quality of marine swarmers down the 
Euxine, occupied portions of the coast, or passed on to the 
Mediterranean, to the Adriatic, Gaul, and Spain, where the 
fabulous Gerion is again represented to have been a fair-haired 
giant.^ All these legends have a singular alliance in consist- 
ent uniformity, reaching to Egypt, and going round and beyond 
the Mediterranean Sea. Under the names of Scythians and 
Tauranians, we find, in Asiatic history, that they were dreaded 
by all southern nations, even to a single individual coming 
amongst them. Kindred nations of this stem reached Europe 
without distinct accounts of their origin and progress ; but the 
movements of others, at later periods, substantiated by Chinese 
writers, by Indian documents, and by Greek and Latin authors, 
who record their arrival in the west, attest that they all came 
from the same region, in Mongolia, Thibet, and the lakes of 
Central Asia. Being coerced by the pressure of the beardless 
stock behind, they forced a passage towards Europe through 
innumerable fields of slaughter, and swarmed during a period 
commencing probably twelve centuries B. C, perhaps when the 
great inland sea was already much contracted, and the rivers 
in their way were not yet so greatly absorbed in sand as they 
are now. 

We observe, in fact, that already at the time of the first 
Celtic expansion in Gaul, when tribes of that race recrossed the 

* In Asia Minor they appear to have constituted the Lydian, Pelasg'ian, 
and Carian nations ; and Tyrhenian or Torubian, and Pha2nician, further 
on, were probably more Finnic, but all allied, as is shown by Hesiod and 
Herodotus, in Lydian records ; and Ovid, quoting a Naxian legend, where 
tribes are personified, the Tyrhenian theft of the god BacchuSj indicates 
that these pirate rovers carried the vine to Italy. 



412 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

Rhine, 600 years B. C, that Semi-Teutones or Getic tribes, 
such as the Boii, were among them, and that the movement 
was occasioned by fresh pressure of similar tribes coming 
down the north-west coast of Germany — tribes that could not 
be expatriated by any other than enemies of purer Getic race, 
who were themselves pressed by more of the same, further in 
the north-east. We have prominent, on the scene of action, 
the same names of nations, from the high lands of Mongolia to 
the German Ocean. They continue to roll onwards in waves, 
retaining their first appellations, till four centuries A. C. In 
Tahtar, and Chinese and European Chinese annals, they are 
distinguished by the names of Kinto Moey, Yuchi, and Yetoe, 
Getoe, ScythEe, Guti, Guttones, Jotun, Goths, Massagetas, &c., 
until they become known by more tribal denominations, such 
as Gothi, Germani, Teutones, Xacas, Sacas, Sakya, Sacae : 
at later periods we find Sueiones, Suevi, Burgundi ; and at 
length they are followed by Sclavonic tribes, which always 
bear some impression of Ural Altaic consanguinity, notwith- 
standing that in part they are descended from Sacas, who, 
repulsed by Indian forces, fell back upon Persia, and brought 
with them Hindoo mythological notions, that extended among 
kindred nations, and reached Scandinavia. 

According to Chinese annalists, when Foh appeared, B. C. 
1027, Yuchi were already established in Bactria, along the 
Sihoon or Jaxartes river, and they had possessed, or still were 
masters of, the great basin around Lake Balkach ; the first station 
west of the central mountain chain, provided that the Siberian 
region, in remote times called Geta or Yeta, be not still more 
ancient, and reveal the original meaning of Get, bright, corrus- 
cating, the same as Sibir, and our silver, which seems to be the 
Russian or Sclavonic translation of Yet. 

The Chinese Yuchi, and more proper names of Yeta and 
GetcB, collectively taken, denoted the whole family of fair- 
haired tribes, including those which were foremost in the 
movement towards the west, and were partially intermixed 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 413 

with the Celtic tribes of the north, forming the Cymber or 
Cimmerian people before mentioned. Similar interunions 
affected the Gallic or fair-haired Gaul tribes; the Boii, the 
Volsci, the Britons of the east coast, the Vuinidi ; the Wilci, 
northern or second Belgae,^ &c. ; but it may be doubted 
whether the Allemanni, Allobrogi, Centomanni, Geremanni, 
Teutones, and Frisones, were of the same races, pure Getas, or 
with perhaps some Finnic intermixture. That they were 
nearly allied, is evident from their tribal names, notwithstand- 
ing that the Romans confounded them with the Gauls, 
because, in the time of Marius, it was thought to be the 
greater honor to vanquish them, and they were encountered 
on the west side of the Rhine. In Britain, the former were 
the Gwyddel Coch, or Ywerdon, the red Gael of Ireland, 
probably the Dalriads noticed in the third century again, of the 
same nation as the yellow-haired Britons, taller than the 
Italian race, seen at Rome by Strabo, and still distinguished 
by the bard of Malcolm III., in 1057. These no doubt were 
the Celto Scythas of earlier antiquity, little if at all to be 
divided from the Finnic Celts, but more distinct from the 
Getic tribes, who are often noticed in antiquity, as milk-eating 
and western Scythas, residing between the Danube and the 
Tanais or Don, at the time the eastern Getae, or Massagetae, 
the Sakas and Sarmatas, were on the plains northward of the 
Caspian, and along the Oxus and Jaxartes, up to High Asia, 
and the Yuchi (Yueichi) were still in the present Mongolia. 
This appears to have been that period when the great conflict 
of the typical races was at its height, in Northern Central 
Asia ; for the Chinese were then building the Great Wall 
(B. C. 223) to exclude these valiant tribes from their southern 
states, and the Persian monarchs were equally anxious to pre- 
vent them penetrating to the south, since they also had raised 

* The Esauites, or Italian Edomites of Gorio, who built Norba, Alba, 
and other Cyclopean cities in Lower Etruria and Latium, were a fair- 
haired race, most likely Etruscans, speaking an Oscan dialect. 

35^ 



414 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

a great wall, or continuous lines of defence, from Bactria to 
the Caspian, a rampart like the Kizil Alan, most likely older 
than the accession of the Sassanian dynasty ; since further 
west, the wall between the two seas, passing from Derbend 
(Porta portarum, Portse Caspiae) to the Euxine, appears also to 
be more ancient than historical record. 

The Yuei-chi, the last Caucasian race that left the north 
central high land of Asia, being pressed by the Mongolians, or 
by Huns from the north-east (about 200 B. C), were compelled 
to quit Chensi, and fell upon the Sai, or Sakas, who, retreat- 
ing, divided into two great masses, whereof the first directed 
its course towards the west, and the other, not quite so numer- 
ous, fell back upon Southern Thibet, and thence came down 
■upon the Greek Bactrian state (B. C. 90), then ruled by Mith- 
ridates. They had, at the same time, similar conflicts with 
the Parthians, whose king, Artaban, they slew. They gave 
an asylum to Sanotrokes, and restored him to power (B. C. 
76). From Bactria they crossed the Paropamisus, and sub- 
dued another Greek sovereignty in AlTghanistan, on the south 
side of the chain. Passing onwards, they formed a province 
of Scinde ; but, in an attempt to penetrate further eastward, 
they were routed by Vikra-maditya, king of Avanti (B. C. 
56). If not from an earlier invasion, it was, at the latest, in 
consequence of this defeat, that the recoiling Scythae were 
supplied with the Hindoo religious elements, which some of 
the tribes, migrating westward, have evidently mixed up with 
Celtic and Finnic legends in the north of Europe. We do 
not, for example, find the Asii, here called Lazi, to have pos- 
sessed the doctrines recorded in the Edda. When, according 
to the Chinese annals, they were opposing the Tatzin or the 
Romans, in their endeavors to open a trade with China, for 
which purpose, being hindered on land, they sent an ambassa- 
dor by sea to the Celestial Empire, in the feign of a sovereign 
denominated " Anton," i. c, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 
While they were still residing on the Caspian, and when they 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 415 

began to form a strong community on the banks of the Borys- 
thenes, Thorgitaus, their chief divinity, is not represented with 
characters suited to the high northern latitude, where Thor and 
Woden are afterwards made to operate in a manner congenial 
with the climate. If the city Asgard, once existing near Azof, 
at the mouth of the Don, was the representative of the first 
abode commemorated in the north, then the Asii possessed at 
that point an intermediate resting-place, so that from their first 
known station within the high table land of Asia, above the 
southern sources of the Jaxartes, they moved gradually to the 
south through Sogdiana, across the Paropamisus, and then 
westward, to the three stations already indicated, before they 
or a clan of this people again returned to the north, probably 
by ascending the Borysthenes, and halting some time about the 
lake of Ladoga, made that water a sacred centre, until they 
migrated to Scandinavia. 

The Getas, found by Ovid occupying the west coast of the 
Euxine, were then already a century in moving onwards 
towards the north-west of Europe, taking again the great 
rivers of the present Poland to reach the Baltic. With the 
Thuringians and Saxons, or Sacasunen, among them, they 
forced their way to the German Ocean, dislodging the Cym- 
bers, excepting remnants that clung to the swamps, and the 
then submerging islands of the deltas formed by the great 
rivers which discharge their waters into the German Ocean. 
They were most likely the subsequent Friesen and Sicambers, 
or Water Cymbers, who, with other tribes of so-called Ger- 
man!, formed the posterior offensive confederacy of the Franks 
(Freye-Anke) ; among these the clan of Merovingians (Meer- 
vingen), notwithstanding that the site they inhabited is 
pointed out to have been on the Merwe in Holland, seems 
nevertheless to indicate a clan of sea-rovers, whose first intel- 
ligible historical chief, Pharamund (Vaaremund), or com- 
mander of the navigation, had performed some great exploit in 
the then fresh career of distant marine expeditions, such as 



416 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

that of plundering and ravaging- the coasts of Africa and 
Spain. They and their chief may perhaps refer to the remark- 
able escape of the Prankish exiled prisoners, who, in A. D. 
280, seized upon shipping on the coasts of the Euxine, and 
forced their way homeward, plundering Syracuse and the 
coasts of Gaul and Spain, until they reached the mouth of the 
Rhine in safety, and loaded with booty. This event may be 
the basis of the mystical legend of the Bristly Bull monster, 
which rose out of the sea, and became the parent of the Bor- 
stigen, Meringauen, or Meeringen; for it explains how a 
daring, rich, and victorious body of Celto Scythae and Finni 
of the west, being moulded into one united companionship by 
misfortune and by success, replete with the experience of their 
adventurous achievement, and possessed of captive wives and 
slaves from highly civilized nations, should have grasped power 
at home, and given that settled purpose of conquest to these 
restless tribes, which, until then, had been only known as the 
mere maraudings of pirates. 

By the departure of the Franks eastward and across the 
Rhine, and of the Saxons and Angles to Britain, room was 
made for other tribes, who either wanted space on the spot, or 
v^ere daily pressing onwards through the swamps and forests 
of Poland and Russia. We shall not relate the great influx 
of them before and with the Huns, and of numerous Finnic 
and Getic nations from the east, among which the eastern and 
western Goths were the most conspicuous. Like several 
others, they had struck upon the shores of the southern Baltic, 
and then found they must turn to the south. They or similar 
migratory bands compelled Alans, Vandals, Burgundians, &c., 
to precede or to follow them, and to produce that remarkable 
cross migration from north to south, which caused the intimate 
mixture of the fair and dark-haired races in middle and south- 
ern Europe, and in the end effected that thorough civilization 
of the whole, on principles of progression, continuing to 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 417 

develop science with daily increasii^g rapidity, and tending 
shortly to embrace the whole earth. 

Though many of the parent races of nj».tions now remaining 
were without letters, or were possessed of valuable elements 
of knowledge in a very circumscribed degree, there existed 
among them all, at a period much earlier than is often allowed, 
a method of embodying (it is true, commonly under symbolical 
expressions) records of national belief, manners, and events, 
which give occasional light, sufficient to rectify the scanty 
data of the later classical writers, and the documents contained 
in the acts of the earlier ages of Christianity. These most 
ancient national legends are poems, in various forms, and 
often in some part religious. They are reports, such as Virgil 
knew, and interwove in his iEneid, concerning the tribes of 
Latium, and Strabo asserts were possessed by the Iberians. 
They were recitals committed to memory, like the Homeric 
poems, preserved from one generation to another by repetition, 
with an exactness, all things considered, wonderfully perma- 
nent. Thus the Gael of the Scottish Highlands, and northern 
Irish, have recorded the poems of Ossian, now thoroughly 
proved to be genuine. Such are the thirty cantos of the 
Finnic Kalewalla, lately brought to light, the numerous Scan- 
dinavian Sagas, and the two Eddas. Even the British Celtic 
legends of Arthur, the Mabinogion, and the poems of Taliesin 
and Aneurim, have now likewise established their degree of 
authenticity, as well as the first part of the Arabic Antar. 
Among the Teutonic tribes, the staves of the Gehugende, 
according to Jahn, marked on wood, in Runic letters, con- 
tained the tribal reminiscences, whence the earliest monkish 
annali^-ts have drawn a great part of their first historical mate- 
rials. The Heldenbuch, and Niebelungen-i^pth, were most 
likely preserved by their help. The last mentioned may, 
however, be of Franco-Theotisk origin, since four or six pages, 
in the Flemish language, of the twelfth century, have been 
lately discovered at Ghent. 



418 NATURAL HISTORY OF 

It is to be regretted that many stores of early information 
have been neglected. The list of classical (Greek and Latin) 
writers which have perished since the thirteenth century is 
sufficiently extensive. That of indigenous chronicles, annals, 
and legends, especially in the north of Europe, since the same 
period, is even more considerable. Some few may yet remain 
unknown ; and though the general history of events may not 
be greatly impaired, we still have to deplore the loss of much 
that concerns the nationality, the manners, opinions, and tra- 
ditions of our remoter ancestors, which, after all, are quite as 
valuable, nay, even more so, than the commemoration of crime 
and barbarity which has been preserved. Of the class we 
mean, there are still a few remaining, which, although they be 
distorted by ill-directed zeal, by imposture, and by ignorance, 
furnish curiouts hints in their way. Such, for example, is the 
song of the Lombards, also known as that of the Ost and 
West Friesen or Prisons, found by Mr. Bonstetten, at Copen- 
hagen. In the Land-urbar, or Costumier of the Bernese 
Swiss, there is likewise a legendary record of the fair-haired 
tribes of Ober-Hasli, Schwytz, Gessenay, and Bellegarde, 
printed as early as 1507, by Etterlin, in the chronicles of 
Lucerne. The Song of Hasli, of about one hundred and 
eighty stanzas, relates the migration of these clans, their 
battles, and their arrival near the Brochenberg, where they 
built Schwytz ; and, it appears, they fought in the cause of 
Arcadius and Honorius, about the year 387. 



Here we terminate this inquiry into the origin and filiation 
of the races of Man, — a subject, zoologically viewed, we 
thought more novel, than to repeat what has already been said 
by other writers, and especially by Dr. Prichard, with his 
accustomed industry and learning. 

As for us, we are compelled, for want of space, to abstain 
from entering into many important particulars, which would be 



THE HUMAN SPECIES. 419 

more necessary for the elucidation of the general theory now 
advanced, if readers were not now very commonly well 
informed on most of the points brought here under considera- 
tion. Want of space compelled us, from the beginning, to 
mass our superabundant materials into groups, which on 
many occasions may appear too much generalized, and on 
others marked with repetitions, which sometimes we thought 
requisite to refresh the memory of the reader. The basis of 
the questions chiefly investigated was laid in a series of lec- 
tures on the same subject, read to the Plymouth Institution, 
between the years 1832 and 1837. The materials were exclu- 
sively sought for in scientific researches and profane history ; 
and the successive discoveries and conclusions of other writers 
since that period, have, in general, strongly supported the 
main points of our own convictions, to which we attach no 
further personal importance than what continued research 
will disprove, or in due time assent to, when the basis of sev- 
eral conclusions offered in these pages will have acquired more 
ample notoriety and consequent solidity. 



(X!" ,' 



APPENDIX. 



It was intended, when the foregoing work was first in progress, to 
have thrown into an Appendix such additional observations as might be 
thought important, or that had escaped notice in their proper places, and 
to add to them the discoveries which might have become known during 
the progress of publication ; but finding the text already greatly to exceed 
the usual limits of the single volume allowed for the discussion of the 
questions we have had to consider, the objects to have come under notice 
were reluctantly abandoned, or confined to the smallest space. 

Thus, on the article Indus, pp. 107 — 111, recent discoveries of more than 
one ancient bed of the river have been made considerably further to the 
eastward than what were known, and the conjectures respecting the origi- 
nal course of the river to the sea, in the Gulf of Cutch, are strengthened. 

Respecting the abrasion of the west coast of India, pp. 109, 110, might 
be mentioned Calicut, the capital city at the time of the Portuguese con- 
quest, but now sunk beneath the sea. 

With regard to the various levels between the Caspian Sea, the uplands 
of Russia, and Poland, pp. 120 — 124, we may remark, that the fall of the 
rivers opening in the Volga is 110 feet, those that are affluents to the Neva 
fall 445 feet, making a total of 555 ; now, adding this total to the surface 
of the Caspian j there appears to be only 200 feet remaining for the culmi- 
nating ground at the sources of the Volga ; but if these are estimated on 
36 



422 APPENDIX. 

measurement based in error, and we make the elevation to be about 700 
feet at the highlands of Vologda, still taking the lowest level between the 
Euxine and the Baltic to be in a line of latitude 58, the waters of the two 
were of no dissimilar height, while the Gulf of Bothnia was still an open 
strait, and the northern portion of the Old Continent had not as yet com- 
menced rising. It appears that Norwegian Lapland has risen 1800 feet 
La the last 1200 years. 

At page 129, note, we should have added that even the byssus of the 
pinna was not destroyed. 

Pages 142-3. The volcanic disturbances of the Red Sea were again in 
operation in the last or in the present year (1847), when a new island rose 
above the surface in the southern portion. The French survey, for a 
canal between Suez and Lake Mensaleh, recently published, likewise 
countenances the opinion that the Isthmus was originally open. 

Page 151. Among others, is the tale of Moshup, the giant spirit, who 
resided at Nop, noAV Martha's Vineyard, at a time when the cm-rents ran 
differently, and ice used to pack about Nantucket shoals. But better 
evidence is found in the researches of Mr. Lyell, who considers the south- 
eastern portion of the United States, about Savannah, to be subsiding, 
while Canada, and latterly Nova Scotia, are shown to be rising, probably 
in the same ratio as the Arctic regions on the Old Continent. 

Page 155. The human bones first discovered in England were in fissures 
of lime rock : they went to mend the highAvay, and no investigation by 
competent persons took place until long after. A similar fate attended 
the discovery of a completely fossilized human body at Gibraltar, in 1748. 
The fact is related in a manuscript note, inserted in a copy of the disser- 
tation on the antiquity of the earth, by the Rev. James Douglass, read at 
the Royal Society, May 12, 1785. The volume belonged to the late Rev. 
Vyvyan Arundel, while he was still at Exeter College, Oxford, and the 
note, signed J. W., is written on paper, by the water-mark indicating 
about the year 1790. In substance it relates that while the writer was 
himself at Gibraltar, some miners employed to blow up rocks, for the 
purpose of raising batteries, about fifty feet above the level of the sea, on 



APPENDIX. 423 

the higher ground, near the Old INIole, discovered an appearance of a 
human body, which — impatient because the officer to whom notice was 
sent of the object did not come to witness it — they blew up. It was 
reported to have been eight feet and a half long. Several of the pieces 
were taken up, and among them part of a thigh bone, " with flesh, and 
I thought an appearance of veins, all in a state of perfect petrifaction, as 
hard as marble itself ; and in the solid part of the same stone a sea shell." 
It is evident, that if this body was fossilized by the infusion of stalactite 
matter, it must still have been of most remote antiquity. 

Pages 156 — 161. We refer to Mr. Lyell's account of the human remains 
brought from South America, where, among others, he notices a skull, 
taken from among a great number of other remains, out of a sandstone 
rock, now overgrown with very large trees, in the vicinity of Santas, in 
Brazil. He avows an opinion that the locality may have been an Indian 
burying-ground, which subsequently sank beneath the level of the sea, 
and then was hove up again. Now, if this theory be admitted, and it is 
coupled with the growth of large trees above the deposit, to what period 
can it be assigned, when we reflect, that the bones of pachyderms, and of 
a species of extinct horse, both confessedly found in alluvial, must be of 
a more recent period ? 

Page 419. With regard to the Slavi, which might have been noticed as 
the last migrating nation that came from the East to Europe, they were 
omitted, because no detail could be given even of the little that is known 
of them. In structure and intellectual capacity they are so like their 
immediate predecessors, the Goths, that no other sensible difierence is 
observable between them, than that they have even a still greater pre- 
dominance of Sanscrit roots in their language, and that there are other 
evidences which lead to a presumption of their route westward having 
been in part to the south of the Caspian. An instance of the highest 
intellectual development, in the frontal form of the head, is given in the 
Plates. 



AMERICAN TYPE 




D" OccipitaJ vi.mv mlh the t/.> /nc</s. 



WOOLLY-HAIRED TYPE 




GOLD COAST 



ARAJF0CTIOS 




TASMAlf . 



JnMori X 



BEARDLESS TYPE 




MOU&OLE . 

VSRTJCAl. ASPECT. 




BEARDED or CAUCASIAN lYPE 




ECROPEMf 



FEGEE ISLAMDS . 



/t'/TT" •<• 



lO 




¥~ 

Q <^ 

LJ UJ 

— q: 

< o 

X UJ 

>- 



o 
o 








IN^DO-CHINA-MALAY RACES. 





^-i-^^ 




COCHIN CHINA. 



SIAMESE. 





MONGOL. 




CAJ-'l'St; OJ- BRAidlL Hv\Tr '.-AST NKGKO AXU ■•AYAPO i>sDlAN. 



ft. 



NEW ZEALAND. 




TE KEWITl, SOT^ OT TE KAt'WAIX'. 




:^C ^^ 



OTO INDIA'N. 




C-trSr-- 









•%, , ^z\ 





(i'li. 



CLICHE, ROCKY MOUNTAIN TNDIATS. 




NOJAI TAHXAS. 



10. 




6WAVTHV K-iLiUn'KS, KLKLTH. 






%.. 



JAPAiJESE PRIZE TIGHTER. 



u. 



CAUCASIAN TARTARS. 




CAUCASiAN RACE. 




&KEATE9T DEVELOPEME>i1 _ SUVVOSLC KOBLE. 



VALUABLE WORKS 

PUBLISHES B^ 

GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY FOR 1850: or, Year-Book of Facts in 
Science and Art, exhibiting the most important discoveries and improyements in Mechan- 
ics, Useful Arts, Natviral Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Meteorology, Zoology, 
Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, Geography, Antiquities, &c. ; together with a list of recent 
Scientific Publications ; a classified list of Patents ; obituaries of eminent Scientific Men ; 
an index of important papers in Scientific Journals, reports, &c. Edited by David A. 
Wells, and George Bliss, Jr. With Portrait of Prof. Agassiz. 12mo,. .cloth,. ...1,25 

paper covers,. . . .1,00 

This work will be issued annually, and the reading public may easily and promptly possess 
themselves of the most important facts discovered or announced in these departments. 

As it is not intended for scientific men exclusively, but to meet the wants of the general reader, 
it has been the aim of the Editors that the articles should be brief and intelligible to all. The 
Editors have received the approbation, counsel and personal contributions of Professors Agassiz, 
Horsford, and Wyman, of Harvard University, and many other scientific gentlemen. 

THE ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY, FOR 1851; Edited by David A. 
Wells, and George Bliss, Jr. With Portrait of Prof. Silliman. 12mo,.. cloth,.... 1,25 

Paper covers, . . . .1,00 
V&- Each volume of the above work is distinct in itself, and contains entirely new matter. 

THE POETRY OF SCIENCE; or. The Physical Phenomena of Nature. By Robert 
Hunt, author of "Panthea," "Researches of Light," etc. First American, from the 
second London edition. 12mo, cloth, . . . .1,25 

** The author, while adhering to true science, has set forth its truths in an exceedingly captivating 
style." — Commercial Advertiser. 

" We are heartily glad to see this interesting work re-published in America. It is a book that is 
a book." — Scientific American. 

" It is one of the most readable, interesting, and instructive works of the kind, that we have ever 
seen." — Phil. Christian Observer. 

CYCLOP/EDIA OF ANECDOTES OF LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS. 

Containing a copious and choice selection of Anecdotes of the various forms of Literature, 
of the Arts, of Architecture, Engravings, Music, Poetry, Painting and Sculpture, and of 
the most celebrated Literary Characters and Artists of different countries and Ages, etc. 
By Kazlitt Arvine, A. M., author of " Cyclopaedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes," 
octavo, cloth, in press. 

CYCLOP/EDIA OF SCIENTIFIC ANECDOTES, containing a selection respecting 
the various Sciences and Mechanical Arts, and of their most distinguished Votaries. By 
Kazlitt Arvine, A. M., author of " Cyclopaedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes." 
One volume, cloth, in press. 

The two works together, wiU embrace the best Anecdotes in Ancient and Modem collections, as 
well as in various Histories, Biographies and Files of Periodical Literature, ^-c. The whole classified 
under appropriate subjects, alphabetically arranged, and each supplied with a very full and 
particular Index of topics and names. Both the above volumes wiU first be published in numbers 
— sixteen in aU, at 25 cents each — making together two large octavo volumes, of about 700 images 
each, illustrated with numerous fine engravings. The first number will be issued about tlie first 
of April, to be continued semi-monthly until completed. 



THE FOOT-PRINTS OF THE CREATOR ; or, the Asterolepsia of Stromness, 
with numerous illustrations. By Hugh Miller, author of " The Old Red Sandstone," 
&c. From the third London Edition. With a Memoir of the author, by Louis Agassiz. 
12mo,. cloth, 1,00 

Db. Bucklaitd, at a meeting of the British Association, said he had never been so much aston- 
ished in his life, by the powers of any man, as he had been by the geological descriptions of Mr. 
MiUer. That wonderful man described these objects with a facUity which made him ashamed of 
the comparative meagreness and poverty of his own descriptions in the " Bridgewater Treatise," 
which had cost him hours and days of labor. He would give his left hand to possess such powert 
of description as this man; and if it pleased Providence to spare his useful hfe, he, if any one, 
would certainly render science attractive and popular, and do equal service to theology and geology. 

" Mr. Miller's style is remarkably pleasing ; his mode of popxilarizing geological knowledge un- 
surpassed, perhaps imequalled; and the deep reverence for Divine Revelation pervading all, adds 
interest and value to the volume." — New York Com. Advertiser. 

" The publishers have again covered themselves with honor, by giving to the American pubUc, 
■with the Author's permission, an elegant reprint of a foreign work of science. We earnestly 
bespeak for this work a wide and free circulation, among all who love science much and religion 
more." — Puritan Recorder, 

THE OLD RED SANDSTONE ; or, New Walks in an Old Field. By Hugh Miujee 
Illustrated with Plates and Greological Sections. 12mo, cloth, . . . .1,00 

"Mr. Miller's exceedingly interesting book on this formation is just the sort of work to render 
any subject popular. It is written in a remarkably pleasing style, and contains a wonderful 
amount of information." — Westminster Review. 

" It is withal, one of the most beautiful specimens of English composition to be found, convey- 
ing information on a most difficult and profound science, in a style at once novel, pleasing and 
elegant. It contains the results of twenty years close observation and experiment, resulting in an 
accumulation of facts, which not only dissipate some dark and knotty old theories with regard to 
ancient fonnations, but establish the great truths of geology in more perfect and harmonious con- 
sistency with the great truths of revelation." — Albany Spectator. 

PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY : Touching the Structure, Development, Distribution, 
and Natural Arrangement of the Races op Animals living and extinct, with numerous 
illustrations. For the use of Schools and Colleges. Part I., Comparative Physiology. 
By Louis Agassiz and Augustus A. Gould. Revised edition. 12mo,. . .cloth,. . . .1,00 

" This work places us in possession of information half a century in advance of all our elemen- 
tary works on this subject. * * No work of the same dimensions has ever appeared in the 
English language, containing so much new and valuable information on the subject of which it 
treats." — Prof. James JJall, in the Albany Journal. 

"A work emanating from so liigh a source hardly requires commendation to give it currency. 
The volume is prepared for the student in zoological science ; it is simple and elementary in its 
Btyle, full in its illustrations, comprehensive in its range, yet well condensed, and brought into the 
narrow compass requisite for the purpose intended." — SHUman's JoumaL 

" The work may safely be recommended as the best book of the kind in our language." — Chrts- 
tian Examiner. 

" It is not a mere book, but a work— a real work in the form of a book. Zoology is an interesting 
science, and here is treated with a masterly hand. The liistory, anatomical structure, the nature 
and habits of numberless animals, are described in clear and plain language and illustrated with, 
innumerable engravings. It is a work adapted to colleges and schools, and no young man should 
be without it." — Scientific American. 

PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY, PART II. Systematic Zoology, in which the Prin- 
ciples of Classification arc applied, and the principal groups of animals are briefly 
characterized. With nuoicrous illustrations. 12mo, [in pi'^paration] 



THE EARTH AND MAN: Lectures on Comparativb Physical GEOGRApny, in its 
relation to the History of Mankind. By Arnold Guyot, Professor of Physical Geography 
and History, Neuchatel. Translated from the French, by Prof. C. C. Felton, with illus- 
trations. Second thousand. I2mo, cloth,.... 1,25 

" Those who have been accustomed to regard Geography as a merely descriptive branch of learn- 
ing, drier than the remainder biscuit after a voyage, will be delighted to find this hitlierto un- 
attractive pursuit converted into a science, the principles of which are definite and the results 
conclusive." — North American Review. 

" The grand idea of the work is happily expressed by the author, where he calls it the geograph- 
ical march of history. Faith, science, learning, poetry, taste, in a word, genius, have liberally 
contributed to the production of the work under review. Sometimes we feel as if we were 
Btudying a treatise on the exact sciences ; at others, it strikes the ear like an epic poem. Now it 
reads like history, and now it sounds like prophecy. It will find readers in whatever language 
it may be pubUshed." — Christian Examiner. 

" The work is one of high merit, exhibiting a wide range of knowledge, great research, and a 
philosophical spirit of investigation. Its perusal will well repay the most learned in such subjc cts, 
and give new views to all, of man's relation to the globe he inhabits." — SilUman's Journal. 

COMPARATIVE PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; or, tho 

Study of the Earth and its Inhabitants. A series of graduated courses for the use of 
Schools. By Arnold Guyot, author of "Earth and Man," etc. 

The series hereby announced will consist of three courses, adapted to the capacity of three dif- 
ferent ages and periods of study. The first is intended for primary schools, and for children of 
from seven to ten years. The second is adapted for higher schools, and for young persons of from 
ten to fifteen years. The third is to be used as a scientific manual in Academies and Colleges. 

Each course will be divided into two parts, one of purely Physical Geography, the other for Eth- 
nography, Statistics, PoUtical and Historical Geography. Each part will be illustrated by a colored 
Physical and Pohtical Atlas, prepared expressly for this purpose, delineating, with the greatest 
eare, the configuration of the sinface, and the other physical phenomena alluded to in the corres- 
ponding work, the distribution of the races of men, and the political divisions into States, ^c, ^c. 

The two parts of the first or preparatory com-se are now in a forward state of preparation, and 
will be issued at an early day. 

MURAL MAPS:a series of elegant colored Maps, exhibiting the Physical Phenomena 
of the Globe. Projected on a large scale, and intended to be suspended in the Recitation 
Boom. By Arnold Guyot [in preparation] 

KITTO'S POPULAR CYCLOP/EDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE. Con- 
densed from the larger work. By John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A., author of " The Pictoral 
Bible," "History and Physical Geography of Palestine," Editor of "The Journal of 
Sacred Literature," etc. Assisted by numerous distinguished Scholars and Divines, 
British, Continental and American. With numerous illustrations. One volume, 
octavo, 812pp cloth, . . . .3,00 

The Popular Biblical CYCLOP^niA of Literature is designed to furnish a Dictionart 
OF THE Bible, embodying the products of the best and most recent researches in Biblical Liter- 
ature, in which the Scliolars of Europe and America have been engaged. The work, the residt 
of immense labor and research, and enriched by the contributions of writers of distinguished 
eminence in the various departments of Sacred Literature, — has been, by universal consent, 
pronounced the best work of its class extant ; and the one best suited to the advanced knowledge 
of the present day in all the studies connected Avith Theological Science. 

The Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature from which this work is condensed hy the author, is 
pnbUshed in two volumes, rendering it about twice the size of the present work, and is intended, 
says the author, more particularly for Ministers and Theological Students ; while the Popular 
Cyclopaedia is intended for Parents, Sabbath School Teachers, and the great body of the religious 
public. It has been the author's aim to avoid imparting to the work any color of sectarian or 
denominational bias. On such points of diiference among Cliristians, the Historical mode of 
treatment has been adopted, and care has been taken to provide a fair account of the arguments 
which have seemed most couclusive to the ablest advocates of the various opinions. The Pictoral 
EluBtrations — amounting to more than three hundred — ai-e of the very highest order of thp as*. 



wMmwMmmm 



LAKE SUPERIOR : its Physical Character, Yegetation and Animals, compared with 
those of other and similar regions, by L. Agassiz, and contributions from other eminent 
Scientific Gentlemen. "With a Narrative of the Expedition, and illustrations by J. E. 
Cabot. One volume octavo, elegantly illustrated, .cloth,. . . .3,50 

The illuitrations, seventeen in number, are in the finest Btyle of the art, by Sonrel ; embracing 
I'jo.'k.e and Landscape Scenery, Fishes, and other objects of Natmral History, with on outline map 
of Lake Superior. 

This work is one of the most valuable scientific works that has appeared in this country. 
Embodying the researches of our best scientific men, relating to a hitherto comparatively unknown 
region, it will be foimd to contain a great amoimt of scientific information. 

CHAMBERS' CYCLOP/EDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. A Selection cT 
the choicest productions of English Authors, from the earUest to the present time. 
Connected by a Critical and Biographical History. Forming two large imperial octavo 
volumes of 700 pages each, double column letter press ; with upwards of 300 elegant 
Illustrations. Edited by Robeet Chambees, embossed cloth, . . . .5,00 

cloth, full gilt, extra,. . . .7,50 

sheep, extra, raised bands,. . . .6,00 

The work embraces about one thousand Authors, chronologically arranged and classed as Poets, 
Historians, Dramatists, Philosophers, Metaphysicians, Divines, etc., with choice selections from 
their writings, connected by a Biographical, Historical, and Critical Narrative; thus presenting a 
complete view of English Literatxu-e, from the earhest to the present time. Let the reader open 
where he wiU, he cannot faU to find matter for profit and delight The Selections are gems, — 
imfinite riches inalittle room, — in the language of another "A whole E^^glish Libeaet fused 

DOWX INTO ONE CHEAP BOOK I " 

csr The Ameeicax edition of this valuable work is enriched by the addition of fine steel and 
mezzotint Engravings of the heads of Shakspeaee, AnnisoN, Byeon; a f uU length portrait ol 
Dk. Johnson ; and a beautiful scenic representation of Olivee Goldsmith and De. Johnson. 
These important and elegant additions, together with superior paper and binding, render the 
Amebican, superior to all other editions. 

CHAMBERS' MISCELLANY OF USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING KNOWL- 
EDGE. Edited by William Chambees. Withelegant Illustrative Engravings. 10 vols. 

cloth,.... 7,50 

cloth, gUt,....10,0C- 

library, sheep,. . . .10,00 

ear This work has been highly recommended by distinguished individuals, as admirably adapted 
to Eamily, Sabbath and District School Libraries. 

" It would be difficult to find any miscellany superior or even equal to it; it richly deserves the 
epithets ' useful and entertaining,' and I would recommend it very strongly, as extremely well 
adapted to form parts of a hbrary for the young, or of a social or circulating hbrary, in to^vn or 
country." — George B. Emerson, Esq., Chairman Boston School Book Committee. 

CHAMBERS' PAPERS FOR THE PEOPLE. 12mo, in beautiful ornamented 
covers ••.... 

Tiiis series is mainly addressed to that numerous class whose minds have been educated by the 
lmpjt)ved schoohng, and the numerous popular lectures and publications of tlie present dty, and 
who consequently crave a higher kind of Literature than can be obtained through the existing 
cheap periodicals. Tlie Papers embrace History, Archojology, Biography, Science, the Induftrial 
and Fine Arts, the leading topics hi Social Economy, together with Criticism, Fiction, Personal 
Narrative, and other branches of Elegant Literature, each number containing a distinct subject. 

The series will consist of sLstccn numbers, of 192 pages each, and when completed, will make 
sight handsome volumes of about 400 pages each. 



EmwmmwM^mw wmm 



KITTO'S POPULAR CYCLOP/EDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE. Con 

densed 'from the larger work. By John Kitto, D. D. Assisted by numerous 
distinguished Scholars and Divines, British, Continental and American. With 
numerous illustrations. One volume, octavo, 812 pp. cloth, $3,00 

55= This is just THE work for Sabbath School Teachers, the Family Library, and for 
every one, indeed, who wishes aid in the study of the Scriptures. It contains an 
immense amount of important information to be found nowhere else. 

TTie New York Commercial Advertiser says, " This is a Dicti'^nary of scriptural topics, 
■which should find a place in every library. Sunday School Teachers, and all who study the 
Scriptures, will find this Cyclopaedia a more valuable auxiliary than any work extant of 
vrhichwe have a knowledge. 

It is the result of the combined biblical, scholastic, and scientific minds of the highest 
order, and scarceh' a question can arise in the mind of the reader of the Sacred Book, bufc 
maj' be answered h\ reference to this comprehensive volume. For the Family Library, as 
well as for Bible Classes and Sunday School Teachers, we cordially recommend it.-' 

The Puritan Recorder says, " Here we have the larger work referred to in the title, boiled 
down more than one half, and made more strong and rich by the evaporation. To that 
numerous and most useful class of laborers in the Lord's vineyard, the Sabbath School 
Teachers, we would respectfully offer our advice to appropriate three dollars each to make 
themselves possessors of this valuable help for the discharge of their duties. K any one 
of them should not have the money, we coimsel him ' to sell his garment and buy one.^ " 

Tlie Philadelphia Christian Observer says, " This is a large, handsome and valviable book ; 
it is very happily adapted to meet the wants of the Family, the Sunday School Teacher, and 
the great majority of the Christian public. As a Bible Dictionary, it is a work of distin- 
guished merit, embodying the results of the best and most recent researches in bibUcal 
literature, in which the scholars of Europe and America have been engaged." 

, 77ie Mercantile Journal says, " We have examined the work with the greatest interest, and 
can assure our readers that it is a book of no ordinary value. We know of no work which 
is more worthy a place by the side of the Bible in every family. It is a book which the 
Bible reader will consult %Tith pleasure, and which will 'enhance the interest of the Bible 
itself, by making the reader more thoroughly acquainted with the localities mentioned 
therein, with the circumstances connected with the preparation of each book of the sacred 
Word, with the manners and customs of the ancients, with the geography of the Holy 
Land, and, in short, with every thing connected with the literature of the Bible which 
would be likely to be of interest to the ordinary reader." 

The Albany Spectator says, "Here is indeed a rich treasury for the minister and the 
church, embodying the products of the best, most recent, and reliable researches in biblical 
literature, and presented in a form so full, and yet so condensed, as to put it within the 
reach of hundreds of ministers who did not feel able to purchase the unabridged work 
In this volume you have the pith of the entire work." 

The CJiristian C/ironicle says, " It is a work of immense research, embodying the ^t«sfc 
results of biblical study, contributed by a large corps of enthusiastic and venerable 
scholars. 

For reference in the family, for the use of the Sabbath School Teacher, and for Bible 
Classes, it is beyond comparison the best biblical manual issued from the press. We pre- 
dict for it an extensive circulation, for it must gradually displace Robinson's Camlet, and 
the other smaller and more incomplete manuals which have hitherto been in common use." 

The New York Christian Intelligencer says, " AVc know of no work in the language, as 
a repository of biblical literature, to be at all compared with this most valuable collection 
of Dr. Kitto. This work is an emanation from more than forty of the most able and pro- 
found scholars in sacred literature to be found in the world. England, Scotland, Ger- 
many, and these United States, have all here a most respectable representation j and the 
work does honor to them all." 



ELEMENTS OF MORAL SCIENCE, by rRANCis Watland, D. D., President of 
Brown University, and Professor of Moral Philosophy. Forty-seventh thousand. — 
12mo, cloth, 1,25 

MORAL SCIENCE ABRIDGED, and adapted to the use of Schools and Academies, by 
the Author. Thirtieth thousand, .half mor . ... ,50 

The same, Cheap School Editiox, boards,.... ,25 

This work is used in the Boston Schools, and is exceedingly popular as a text book wherever it 
has been adopted. 

ELEMENTS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY, by Francis Watland, D. D. Twenty, 
first thousand. l*2mo, cloth,. . . .1,25 

POLITICAL ECONOMY ABRIDGED, and adapted to the use of Schools and 
Academies, by the Author. Seventh thousand, half mor. ... ,50 

The above works by Dr. Wayland, are used as Text Books in most of the Colleges and higher 
Schools throughout the Union, and are highly approved. 

PALEY'S NATURAL THEOLOGY. Uustrated by forty Plates, with selections 
from the Notes of Dr. Paxton, and additional Notes, original and selected, with a Vocab- 
ulary of Scientific Terms. Edited by John Wake, M. D. 12mo half mor 1,25 

ROMAN ANTIQUITIES AND ANCIENT MYTHOLOGY; by C. K. DatAWAT. 

Illustrated by elegant Engravings. Eighth edition, improved. 12mo.. half mor.... ,67 

THE YOUNG LADIES' CLASS BOOK ; a Selection of Lessons for Reading, in 
Prose and Verse. By Ebenezer Bailet, A. M. Fifty-second edition,, .half mor. ... ,84 

BLAKE'S NATURAL PHILOSOPHY; being Conversations on Philosophy, with 
Explanatory Notes, Questions for Examination, and a Dictionary of Philosophical Terms, 
with twentj'-eight steel Engravings. By J. L. Blake, D. D.,. sheep. ... ,67 

BLAKE'S FIRST BOOK IN ASTRONOMY ; designed for the use of Common 

Schools. Illustrated with steel-plate Engravings. By John L. Blake, D. D, 

half bound ,50 

FIRST LESSONS IN INTELLECTUAL PHILOSOPHY; or a Familiar Explan- 
ation of the Nature and Operations of the Human ]\Iind. By Silas Blaisdale, 

sheep,.... ,84 

THE CICERONIAN; or, the Prussian Method of Teaching the Elements of the 
Latin Language. Adapted to the use of American Schools. By Professor B. Sears, 
Secretary of Massachusetts Board of Education. 18mo, half mor. ... ,50 

MEMORIA TECHNICA; or, the Art of Abbreviating those Studies which give the 
greatest labor to the Memory ; including Numbers, Historical Dates, Geograph}', Astron- 
omy, Gravities, &c. By L. D. Johnson. Second edition, revised and improved, 

half bound, 50 

PROGRESSIVE PENMANSHIP, Plain and Ornamental, for the u.se of Schools. By 

N. D. GOOLD, author of " Beauties of Writing," " Writing Master's Assistant," etc 

in five parts, each.... ,12^ 

Letter Sheet Size of the above in four books, stiff covers, each. ... ,20 

The copies are arranged in progressive series, and are likewise so diversified by the introduction 
of variations in style, so as to command the constant attention and exercise the ingenuity of the 
learner, tluis removing some of the most serious obstacles to tlie success of the teacher. They are 
divided into five series, intended for the like number of books, and are so arranged and folded 
that a copy always comes over the top of tlie page on which it is to be written. 

There are ninety-six copies, presenting a regular inductive system of Penmanship for ordinary 
business purposes, followed by examples of every variety of Ornamental Writing. 

93- This work is introduced into many of the Boston Public and Private Schools, and g^vea 
universal satisfaction. 

WRITING COPIES, Plain and Ornamental, from the "Progressive Penmanship," bound 
in one book, ,16% 



THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF JOHN FOSTER. Edited by J. E 
Rtland, -with notices of Mr. Fostee, as a Preacher and a Companion. By John Shep- 
PABD. A new edition, two volumes in one, 700 pages. 12x^0, cloth,. . . .1,26 

"In simplicity of language, in majesty of conception, in the eloquence of that conciseness 
which conveys in a short sentence more meaning than the mind dares at once admit, — ^his writings 
are unmatched." — JSTorth British Review, 

RELIGIOUS PROGRESS; Discourses on the Development of the Christian Character." 
By "William R. Williams, D. D. Second edition. 12mo, cloth, .... ,b5 

" This work is from the pen of one of the brightest lights of the American Pulpit. We scarcely 
know of any living writer who has a finer command of powerful thought and glowing, impressive 
hinguage, than he. The present volume will advance, if possible, the reputation which his pre- 
vious woiks have acqxiired for him." — Albany Evening Atlas. 

•'This book is a rare phenomena in these days. It is a nch exposition of Scripture, with a fund 
of practical, rehgious wisdom, conveyed in a style so strong and so massive, as to remind one of 
the English writers of two centuries ago ; and yet it abounds in fresh illustrationa drawn &om every 
—even the latest opened — field of science and of literature." — Methodist Quarterly, 

LECTURES ON THE LORD'S PRAYER, By Weuoam R. WnuAMS, D D. 12mo, 

cloth, ,85 

MOTHERS OF THE WISE AND GOOD, By Rev. Jabez Burns, D. D., Author of 
" Pulpit Cyclopedia, etc." Third thousand. 16mo, cloth,. ... ,75 

A beautiful gallery of portraits of those who not only were " wise and good " in their own gen- 
eration, but whose influence, long after they were slumbering in the dust, went forth to hve again 
in their children. A sketch of the mothers of many of the most eminent men of the world, and 
showing how much they were indebted to maternal influence, for their greatness and excellence of 
tharacter is given. Works of this nature cannot be too widely circulated or attentively read. 

UNIVERSITY SERMONS. Sermons delivered in the Chapel of Brown University. 
By Francis Wayland. Third thousand. 12mo, cloth,. . . .1,00 

" The discourses contained in this handsome volume are characterized by all that richness of 
thought and elegance of language for which their talented author is celebrated. The whole volume 
is well worthy of the pen of the distinguished scholar and divine from whom it emanates." — Dr. 
BaircTs Christian Union, 

THE CHRISTIAN'S DAILY TREASURY; a Religious Exercise for every day in 
the year. By E. Temple. ]2mo, cloth,. . . .1,00 

THE EXTENT OF THE ATONEMENT, in its relation to God and the Universe. 
By Thomas W. Jenkyn, D. D. From the third London Edition. 12mo, . .cloth, .... ,85 

ANTIOCH ; or. Increase of Moral Power in the Church of Christ. By P. Church. 
D. D. With an Essay, by Baron Stow, D. D. 18mo cloth,.... ,50 

PHILOSOPHY OF THE PLAN OF SALVATION; a book for the times. Byan 
American Citizen. With an Introductory Essay by Calvin E. Stowe, D. D., 12mo,— 

cloth,.... ,G2}4 

THE CHURCH MEMBER'S HAND BOOK; a Plain Guide to the Doctrines and 
Practice of Baptist Churches. By Rev. William Croweix. Third thousand. 18mo, 

cloth,.... ,38 

PRACTICAL COMMENTARY ON PHILIPPIANS, by Dr. A. Neandeb. Trans- 
lated by H. C. CoNANT. With an account of the Closing Scenes of the Author's Life, 
by Rauh. 12mo, cloth. 

DR. NEANDER'S COMMENTARY ON EPISTLE OF JAMES, [in preparation.] 



WQEM^ mMWMEMWM IPSlllSl! 



ARVINE'S CYCLOP/EDIA OF ANECDOTES OF LITERATURE AND THE 
FINE ARTS. Containing a copious and choice selection of Anecdotes of the 
various forms of Literature, of the Arts, of Architecture, Engravings, Music, 
Poetry, Painting and Sculpture, and of the most celebrated Literary Characters 
and Artists of different countries and ages, etc. Elegantly Illustrated. 

This is a most amusing, instructive and entertaining work. The anecdotes are 
of a high order, and of such wonderful variety as to furnish something of interest 
for every class of readers, upon almost every possible topic. 

The Christian Times says, " The vrork will be one of rare Interest to the scholar and to 
the general reader. It is illustrated with engravings, and finely printed, the pages resem- 
bling in size and form the noble edition of ' Chamber's Cyclopeedia,' by the same pub- 
lishers." 

The Carpet Bag says, " This is one of the best books of the season, and it presents, in a 
compact form, a thousand wise, witty and remarkable things, that might otherwise never 
have reached that inordinate public, which, like the daughter of the ' horse leech ' we 
read of, is continually craving." 

The work will first be published in eight numbers, at twenty-five cents each, 
which together will make an elegant royal octavo volume of about 730 pages. The first 
number has just been issued, and the others will follow once in two weeks till com- 
pleted. 

A WREATH AROUND THE CROSS; or. Scripture Truth Illustrated. By 
Kev. a. Morton Brown. ' With an Introduction, by Kev. John Angell James. 
"With an elegant Frontispiece. I6mo. cloth, 60 cents. 

The Zion^s Herald says, " In a richly evangelical style the author illustrates the essential 
truths of religion by their relation to the Cross. The plan of the work is happy, and its 
execution able." 

The Albany Spectator says, "We have not seen a book for many a day with a more 
beautiful title than this. And the frontispiece is equally beautiful, presenting Christ as 
cheering the prospect. Leaving the field of mere controversy to others, the author at once 
approaches and leads all with him to the cross ; exhibits it as the means of our justifica- 
tion, sanctificatiou and eternal blessedness ; aims to cultivate the heart rather than the 
intellect ; takes the enquirer fi'om the sign to the thing sanctified ; and gives both edification 
and consolation to enquiring sinners." 

GUYOT'S MURAL MAP OF THE WORLD, on a large scale, (5 by 7 feet,) for 
the Eecitation Room. Printed in three colors. Price, mounted, $10,00. 

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SPECIES; Its typical forms and 

'■ primeval distribution. With elegant illustrations. By Charles Hamilton Smith. 

With an Introduction, containing an abstract of the views of Blumenbach, 

Prichard, Bachman, Agassiz, and other writers of repute, by Samuel Kneeland, 

Jr., M. D. 12mo. cloth, $1,25 

THE EXCELLENT WOMAN, as described in the Book of Proverbs. With 
splendid Illustrations, and an Introduction, by Rev. William B. Spraque, D. D. 
12mo. cloth, extra, in press 

(HT" An elegant Gift Book. 

NOVELTIES OF THE NEW WORLD; an Account of the Adventures and 
Discoveries of the First Explorers of North America. 12mo. cloth, tn press. 

Being second volume of Banvard's Series of American Historieg. 

YOUNG AMERICANS ABROAD: or Vacation in Europe ; embodying the results 
of a tour through Great Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, 
•«7ith elegant Illustrations. 16mo. cloth, in press. 



'■"tla', J» f 



•:f.B.S' 



